Leap into the Future
by SKYLAND2704
Summary: Sky and Z have been teleported 20 years to the future by a monster. What do they see? How will their lives be there? Who do they see themselves with? And how would they handle that information?
1. Ch- Present

A/N: i finally managed to upload this thing completely. hope u like it.

**Ch-1: Present **

(This takes place after the episode Zapped.)

"I JUST CANT STAND YOU" both of them shouted at each other.

"What is it now…" Syd whined, looking up from her magazine.

"Just another fight. Don't sweat it." Jack casually commented.

"What's going on?" bridge asked walking into the common room.

"Sky and z are fighting again." Syd answered.

"As usual" Sam added.

"What now?" Bridge asked.

"Hear for yourself." Jack said.

They quietened and they could clearly hear their voices from down the hall.

"You're so obnoxious!" z shrieked.

"As if you're a saint!" sky yelled.

"I would've killed you if it weren't for the academy regulations." Z hollered.

"No argument from me!" sky hollered back.

"Why're they fighting?" bridge asked innocently.

"Cuz sky called z a slut." Jack said.

"Why'd he do that?" bridge asked.

"Cuz he saw her with some guy." Jack answered

"You forgot the word 'fucking'." Sam added.

"Wha-" bridge was lost.

Just at that moment, their morphers began beeping.

"Looks like their fight will continue some other time." Jack said, heading out, Syd and Bridge in persuit.

X-X-X

"FREEZE SPD!" the red ranger yelled at the monster.

"What is that thing…looks like an ugly alien crossed with a clock, in royal clothes. Oh wait…it is that." Z mocked.

"At least it's prettier than you." Sky commented.

"It still would've got more dates than you." Z commented back.

"Will you two cut it out" jack snarled, "we've got a criminal on the run."

"Whatever." sky and z both said together.

Syd and bridge leapt at the monster, landing with two flying kicks, but were effortlessly tossed by it.

"I am Count Time o'clock. And I'm here to screw you rangers in time."

"No time for your fancy dialogues my friend." Broodwing said, landing next to him.

A really intense fight followed this.

"I'm tired of all this flying around." Count Time o'clock said, and reached out with his long arms, pulling at two of the rangers' feet.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH…" The two shrieked as they were pulled into oblivion by the monster as it disappeared through a portal…

"Where did they go?" Syd asked, panicking.

"Guys, I can't find their signature all over the morphing grid." Jack said, scanning his morpher.

Bridge dawned with realization. "Syd, jack, I think sky and z have been pulled into the future…"

X-X-X

A/N: how was it?


	2. Ch- Where?

**Ch-2: Where? **

"Get them to safety." Somebody yelled.

"Nothing should happen to them… or I'll be history." A young voice yelled.

"Someone get that monster!" another voice yelled.

"On it." A very familiar voice answered.

The pictures were now slowly coming into focus. There were rangers there. But different colors. There was a darker red, silver, green, the nova ranger's vague outline, and what looked like omega.

"Sir. Blue, yellow, epsilon, and rho are down." Another voice said.

"Ma'am, what should we do about them?" the silver one asked.

"Take them into the infirmary." She said. Why was her voice so familiar to z?

"I'm fine. Right z?" she heard sky ask her.

"Yeah, absolutely," z said, "just a little dizzy." the whole picture was in focus now. Sky was sitting up next to her, a green ranger, and one in a black suit, with silver designs of an IX on it, were towering over her.

That Count monster was still fighting the others. Sky helped z up, brushing past he others. "You ready?" he asked her.

"I was born ready." Z replied, smiling.

"SPD EMERGENCY" They yelled and morphed into their respective colors.

Seeing the extra number of rangers, the Count growled, "I'm out of here. But you're stuck!" and vanished into a portal.

Sky and z looked around.

"Where are we?" z asked.

"You're in the future." The black ranger with the familiar voice replied, demorphing. Her uniform was even cooler than her ranger suit.

"Oh god!" sky and z whispered in horror, for standing in front of them was no one other than Elizabeth Delgado, only, she looked older.

X-X-X

"Wow." Z said, looking at herself up and down, going all around her.

The other rangers demorphed too. Sky looked around. There was an unmistakable Sam, and two other cadets, definitely twins, as they resembled each other so much, and another guy who resembled Z as well as sky. And then there was a girl who was so beautiful, that sky couldn't help but stare at her.  
"Okay. Sky Tate and Z Delgado. You two have been transported into the future by a monster, and it'll be good if you two don't panic." The older z said, looking very wise.

"how far exactly in the future?" z asked.

"it is 2045, you can calculate. Sam here was sent to your time and has returned." Older Z replied, "you two need o be taken to the infirmary, there your wounds will be taken care of."

"Well, at least you don't grow up to be the goof you are now." Sky commented.

"That's enough cadet Tate." Older z said.

"Thank you." Said z.

"Anyway… what do we do about them?" a sarcastic voice asked, it was that gorgeous girl.

"Why did that sound like z?" sky asked, "for real this time?"

"Yeah, it did sound like me. But both mes are here. Aren't they?" z asked.

"Yes they are." Sam replied.

"Then who are you?" sky asked her.

" Why do I think I know? How old are you?"

"I'm twenty eight." She replied.

"Then it's true. It is you. You DID survive." Z mumbled.

"You know, older you was a lot supportive." The girl said. She was the nova ranger.

"Older me was a lot supportive because she has a loving husband who already knew who you were before you showed up." Older z said.

"You're married?" younger z asked in surprised, and looked at sky.

"Don't look at me. I'm as shocked as you are." Sky replied, receiving a punch in the stomach.

"Yes I'm married. And yes, this is her."

"No way… Ruth?" younger z asked in disbelief.

"You know her?" sky asked.

"Yes I do know her. She is my daughter." Z solemnly replied.

X-X-X

Shy was so shocked that he could not say anything for the rest of their drive back to the base. Back at the base was when he finally found his voice.

They were taken immediately into the infirmary.

"check them for injuries Dr. Stevens, I'll be back in a few." Older z said, who had been escorting the two to the infirmary. She handed them over and left.

"nurse Henderson, could you be a dear and hand over the result on the scans on the commander?" Dr. Stevens said, not paying much attention to the two cadets. The nurse handed over the report.

"what the hell is going on!" he asked, traumatized, as he realized that the nurse was none other than an older Sydney drew, his crush.

Suddenly, Sam walked in, "hey guys, just checked in to see how you two are faring." He said

"hi Sam, good to see you demorphed, for the first time." Z commented.

"yeah, me too." Sam replied, laughing.

"what s going on? Was that actually Syd? And why was she called Nurse Henderson? And why is she a nurse?" sky asked, in shock.

"oh yeah, things are a little different now than they wee back then. Syd is kinda married to boom now. I know it sounds crazy to you." He said.

"like a scene out of that damn soap opera 'Days Of Our Lives'" z commented.

"oh yeah?" sky said, fuming. How could Syd not fall in love with him, why BOOM of all the people? Not even jack, for decency's sake.

"I think Syd will explain it better to you." Sam said, giving Syd room to talk.

"hi sky… how're you doing?" she asked gently.

"wha- what's going on? You were supposed to end up with me!" he yelled.

"it's fate sky. We did date however…for almost a year, after which, we realized, that our hearts didn't lie in each other, and then we broke up. Then, I met Luke, he was the love of my life. We got married, and then, lived happily." Syd narrated.

"but didn't Sam say you were married to Boom?" z objected.

"yes, I'm coming to that z, then, about six years after my wedding with Luke, he cheated on me, with Kat!" z could hear the anger in her voice, even after 13 years.

"after that, I found out that he had never actually been faithful to me. So I went for a divorce. My daughter came with my custody, he took our son." Syd sadly stated.

"I'm sorry Syd. I'm so sorry. But just for clarification, was I not there or something?" sky asked, confused.

"yeah, you tried you best, but you had your own screwed up love triangle going on. So no, you couldn't be there, even if you tried. Boom was the one who was actually there for me, and in due time, we fell in love and got married. That's it, that's my story." Syd ended, "he truly understands me."

"you have two kids?" z asked in disbelief.

"yeah and so do you." Syd replied.

"really?" sky asked in skepticism.

"Yes, in fact, z's life was wayyy…. better than mine, and hey, talk of the devil, there's z." Syd said, pointing at the doorway, where z, in her super cool uniform walked.

"Commander, I was just talking about you." Syd said, getting up, and almost leaving.

"no need to be so formal Syd, these are only the younger versions of ourselves."

"you're commander?" z asked,

"where the hell am I then, don't tell me I die!" sky said, aghast.

"no sky, you don't die, not while I'm alive." Z said, and then smiled, "anyway, I just came to check in on you two, seems you're in good hands, right Syd?"

"yep" Sydney Henderson, from the future said.

Suddenly, nova ranger, aka Ruth walked in.

"mom, I wanted you to know that the reports for Chester Reginald's investigations were sent to SC Kruger. Now what do I have to do?" she asked.

"get the info on gamma and triton, I'll be on my way, just a while." Z replied.

"oh yeah, that reminds me," sky said, "how the hell do you have a daughter that you know of?"

"I'm sorry, I think I'll know if I get pregnant." Both the Zs replied in unison.

"not what I meant. How does younger Z know I mean, you know, you're not a mom yet?" he asked.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that little detail." Z replied.  
"c'mon z, tell me" sky said.

"I don't think I can tell you. Even jack doesn't know it." Z said.

"yet" added older z.

"yet." Z completed.

"why not me?" sky asked.

"what have you done to earn her trust?" Syd asked, kind of annoyed.

"what do you mean?" sky asked.

"I mean, all you've done is be judgmental, and treat me like a thief." Younger Z replied. Sky suddenly felt remorse, he had never realized that z might also have feelings, he had always treated her as a petty criminal, and she had saved his life countless times.

"I'm so sorry z, I had no idea that you felt that way… don't fret, I won't worry you about this question anymore." Sky said, placing his hand on z's.

All the people from the future looked at this and smiled.

X-X-X

A/N: i think everybody knows who the main couple is gonna be ;)


	3. Ch- Commander

A/N: i deleted the screwed up story, here we are, now, with a continuous story. R&R

**Ch-3: Commander**

After about three hours of sitting in the infirmary, Sky and Z left the place, to find older z, who was going over some files.

"hey" sky said, z on the other hand just greeted herself with a nod. "you find anyway yet to take us back to our time?"

"not really, only that monster can take you back." Z said.

"so all we have to do is catch him and we'll be on our way." Sky asked.

"yeah. Not as easy as it sounds. Remember what happened last time" younger z added.

"by the way, just out of curiosity, where the hell am I?" sky asked, getting impatient. But before older z could reply, the sirens of the HQ went off,

"is it that count dude?" z asked.

"no, some chiropractor-medic thief or something." Z replied, looking into her morpher. The morpher had at least fifty different functions in it. Sky and z were amazed by the advancement of technology there.

They went to the spot with commander Z, and three of the ranger squad cadets.

"ma'am, the others were injured in last battle, it's only green, red and omega, nova is on investigation duty." Sam answered.

"okay then, cadets Tate and Delgado, you can handle this criminal can you?" z asked.

"of course we can, only, let us contain him." Sky said.

Z added, "yep, our bounty from the future."

Then, in a very simple fight, the rangers easily captured the thief, containing him, they left back for the HQ, on the way, sky threw a terrible tantrum,

"where the hell am I in this future. You say I'm not dead, does it mean I'm in a coma or something, or am I evil, the head villain or something? I want to meet myself, I want to meet myself." He yelled like a spoilt kid.

"fine, just stop yelling in my ears, I might have a damaged eardrum." Older z said.

X-X-X

"okay, you two will have to wait for a few minutes, commander Tate is a bit busy." Older z said, ushering them into a room from where they could see sky, sitting at a table, with at least a thousand buttons and levers. He was wearing dark sunglasses and a headset; his hands were monitoring the control panel. He seemed lost in the switches.

"what's he up to?" sky asked z.

"I guess he's playing some games…right commander Delgado?" z asked, looking at her older self.

"it's not Delgado, I'm married remember. And he's working a simulator. Here, I'll show you." She said, messing with some of the functions on her morpher. And a HUGE screen unfolded in front of the three. It showed a simulator, with a hundred assassins, who were attacking a single cadet. Sky's control panel was controlling the assassins.

"what's happening?" sky asked.

Then the battle ended with the cadet's avatar being blown to bits. The sweaty cadet exited the VR room, and made his way to older sky, who was still seated on the desk.

A few minutes later, z met sky's eyes and he beckoned her. She then tapped a few other buttons and the glass screen silently opened.

"cadet Smith as long as you don't beat the simulator, you cannot be promoted to the ranger squad. Dismissed." He just finished. The cadet left, looking extremely red, his face flushed with anger.

"looks like you do end up like Cruger, conceited and officious." Z said smirking.

"do I? man look at yourself…you're so skinny… it's like…you used to be so ripped… what happened?!" sky exclaimed examining himself from top to bottom.

In response, older sky smiled and then, to their shock, rolled out on a wheelchair. Sky let out a yelp; z was stunned.

"I'm sorry" sky exclaimed "seriously, what happened man?"

Older z ran to help him, and they rolled in front of the younger duo.

"nothing actually happened, just a little accident." Sky said in his husky voice, and brushed the question away.

"please tell us man! I can't live like this… how long?" sky asked in a whiny voice.

"it happened four years ago…" z began.

"yeah, I was injured badly and then fell off a four storey building; been in paralysis ever since."

"who did it?" z asked, stunned at sky's state.

"actually it'd be better if you don't know." Older Z replied, still by Sky's side, they had all, by now rolled to the command centre, which had been barely changed.

"tell us please." Sky begged.

"okay…I will only say the name… it was Bridge. I don't think you need to know the whole story." Sky slowly replied.

"how have you been managing these years?" Z asked in awe.

"well, Elizabeth has been helping a lot.

"Elizabeth?" Z asked.

"yeah, I kinda didn't fell like saying Z. Elizabeth sounds more 'grown up'" older Sky said and grinned.

"you can actually smile?" Z asked in mockery.

"of course I can smile. There's no ban on it." Older Sky replied, still laughing.

"Is that humor? Looks like you have actually turned human." Z said.

"anyway, how has your trip to the future been so far?" he asked.

"it's been okay sir." Z said.

"sir? You don't need to be so formal. I'm still your friend. Aren't I?" he asked, looking at the younger Sky.

"yeahhhh… not really, we're more like entrants." Sky said.

"Days of our lives it is." she commented.

Then suddenly the criminal in the containment card, the one they had just captured, spoke out.

"heyyyyy… I couldn't help overhear your conversation; I think I can restore you to your original state. Work out with the paralysis." He yelled from inside. "free me and I'll fix him."

"and what do you want in return?" younger z asked.

"nothing.

"c'mon no criminal will do a good deed for no reason." Younger sky commented.

"okay…you're right. There is this dude I want captured. He framed me and got away. Please, find him. I don't plan on running away, and I can fix the paralyzed guy." The monster shrieked.

"ha." Older sky squealed in laughter, "all the doctors known to us have tried, yet here I am." He said.

"I'm not a human remember. I'm from planet 'medicos' and I can fix any illness. Paralysis is child's play." He said

"okay, I don't see why not" z said, her voice had a very controlled edge of hope.

The two let the criminal out, and immediately caught him, preventing him from running away. He said some charms, applied some medications, and did some other hocus-pocus. And in the end, said just one word.

"RISE"

And the next moment, sky realized that he could feel his legs, he stood up, a little shakily, and walked around the room, bowled over by the miracle.

"well, how about now you two go and help the nice medic find his guy. I have some important business to finish… and z, I wouldn't mind if you'd accompany me" sky said, very politely.

Both of them hadn't expressed anything, but their eyes betrayed their faces, the older two were so happy that it couldn't be expressed in words.

"sure sir. We'll do our best," younger sky said, and left there with the criminal and z.

X-X-X

A/N: mysticism? i think not... or maybe it is. I really don't care.


	4. Ch- Couple

**Ch-4: Couple**

The younger Sky and Z put the handcuffs back in the medic alien, and led him out, as they were walking through SPD corridors, they saw that guy who looked like a cross between Sky and Z, standing over with that gorgeous girl, aka Ruth. It seemed like they were arguing over something.

"you do it. She appointed you for it." She yelled.

"you're the girl. You're more fit for it." He countered.

"being a ranger has it's downsides. You need to remember that."

"well, it wasn't my first choice."

"as if it was mine."

"Still, you're gonna do it."

"I'm the Nova Ranger!"

"I'm the Green ranger!"

"I'm your superior."

"I'm your brother."

"I'm older." She said, with authority.

"Well at least I'm legitimate." He said, throwing his hands in the air, she stood silent. She didn't know how to counter that.

"look at that. The next generation us." sky said, smirking, thinking of his own arguments with Z. he turned to look at her, and saw that she had a pained look in her eyes.

"did I hit a nerve?" he asked, taken aback.

"no."

"something I said?" he asked, now getting concerned. On any normal occasion, his comments would've received a reaction; friendly or deadly, but an extravagant reaction.

"nothing you said, Sky Tate.

The two continued walking. Sky remembered his promise not to pester Z about her past.

It had been a really long day of going through criminal files, missing persons reports, a few hundred FIRs, and finally, going to a dozen places to see if the criminal, DeeZee Vaughn was anywhere, and in the end the two rangers from the past realized that it had all been a waste. The medic provided no more information than the fact that the alien was green eyed and reptilian skinned.

Sky and Z walked through the empty SPD corridors, minus the alien this time, (they had put him in confinement again until tomorrow), and saw the Ruth and Sam making out at a quiet spot.

"hi!" sky said, busting upon them.

"HELLO, a little privacy please!" Sam said, annoyed.

"C'mon, why are you hiding like that, you got rooms, do your stuff there." Z added, putting a hand on sky's shoulder.

"nice way to go Mom." Ruth complained, Z scowled.

"You are really obnoxious." Z said.

"Wonder where she gets that from." Sky added, sarcastically, receiving a punch in the ribs.

"shut your mouth." Z told him,

"yes ma'am!" he mocked.

"No seriously, shut up, or you're going in the Crate!"

Sky silenced up.

"leave us alone. I mean, I know you guys are my friends from the past, but seriously, a guy needs some alone time with his girlfriend." Sam exclaimed.

"why ARE you two hiding?" z asked.

"you aren't exactly the super-cool soccer mom, you know. You'd rip me apart if you knew I was dating your daughter." Sam said, matter-of-factly.

"Guess people change." She replied. And she and sky walked off.

They had to go together, as they were sharing a room. Not a very convenient arrangement for either, but they had stopped bickering as they used to. At least.

Walking towards the dorm rooms, they suddenly heard some sounds, weird sounds; giggling, mostly, and an occasional moan or two.

They decided to check it out, though it would've been best had they ignored it.

The sliding door was just a crack open, and the two peeped in. There was a woman in a crimson red colored bathrobe, sitting on the lap of a man, in a navy blue bathrobe on a plush velvet couch kissing him passionately, and they hadn't noticed the other two, who had now pushed the door open and were watching the drama with a sort of perverse curiosity.

Actually, they were more like gawking at the two, recognizing the woman to be Z. the man's face was turned away from them.

Sky and younger Z were alarmed, and gave a little alarm cough, when they realized the two were in the process to take off each other's bathrobes. And the two faces turned, and, Schuler Marcus Tate felt like his whole dinner had come up his esophagus, not because it had been Sardines, but because the man in the navy blue bathrobe had been none other than Sky Tate's older self.

A/N: the younger sky and z are not really a couple yet. but they'll get there, hopefully.


	5. Ch- Closer

A/N: this one has a little mature content, but also a very sweet moment between sky and z. don't judge my imagination. I have a friend who had a similar story.

**Ch-5: Closer**

"Wh…. WHAT THE FRICKING HELL IS GOING ON!" z exclaimed when she realized who the man was.

She looked at her older self in disbelief.

"seriously!" she said, "of all the douche bags in the universe, you find HIM!"

"okay kids, time for bed." Older Sky tried to joke.

"okay, shut up Mr. Tate." Younger Z snapped, and turned to older z, "You told us that you had a loving and caring husband, this is how you replay him? By cheating on him? With this dude?"

"okay, hold the phone, what did you say?" older sky asked, giving a very confused expression.

"you, and him" sky replied.

"no, what about the cheating part?"

"you're married and you're cheating on him. and older me, how damned horny were you that you decided to hook up with her?" sky asked.

And hearing that, the older duo burst into laughter,

"what's so funny?" the younger ones asked.

"you misunderstood us. We're married." Older Z said.

"exactly, and you're cheating on your LIFE partners." Sky added looking angry. Younger z, on the other hand, was beginning to get the bigger picture, realization dawning, she said, "no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO!"

"yes and yes, " older sky said,

"I said you misunderstood, WE are married." Older Z said, gesturing at herself and sky, smirking at the reactions of the younger two.

"YOU, and HIM?" sky asked, confounded.

"well, we fell in love, and there's nothing stronger than love, is there?" he asked.

X_X_X_X_X

As the younger sky and z walked towards their own dorm room, they were both too shaken to speak. They didn't know what to say to the other. They were married to each other twenty years into the future. How'd that happen, they had never even imagined each other like that. Just the simple fact that as they were walking the halls, their older selves were naked with each other, doing the stuff that they had never even imagined for each other. It was just too much to take in!

The older ones had sent them off to their rooms as parents did to their kids when they wanted some 'alone' time.

"Wait a goddamned second!" sky suddenly spoke up, "does it mean that kid in green is my son?" he asked,

"surprised your son isn't that hell bent on doing everything exactly as prescribed in the SPD handbook?" z replied, surprised that her jabs hadn't been affected by this horrifying revelation.

"what is your problem? Why do you ALWAYS have to take cheap shots at me?" sky asked, frustrated.

Z realized how awful it must have sounded from coming from his future wife, "I, I'm sorry, I guess, we never actually recognized each other as human beings."

"I'm kinda sorry too, I guess I also over-reacted. I mean, it IS our habit to make fun of each other."

and the two burst into light laughter, the tension between them broken.

"gum?" she asked offering her a pack of lemon flavored chews.

"seriously? Twenty years into the future and you still have gum?" he joked, then added matter-of-factly, "And wasn't peppermint your favorite flavor?"

"well, they don't have peppermint here. At least they were out of them today." Z replied, then suddenly something odd struck her, "how do you know my favorite is peppermint?" she asked.

"oh please everyone knows." Sky replied.

"oh no they don't. Bridge does because he's a psychic, no one else does." She replied, "wait did he tell you?"

"of course he didn't tell me. Why on earth would he tell me what flavor gum you like?"

"then how do you know?"

"you always have a pair of it in your uniform's breast pocket."

"I didn't know you paid me that much attention." She replied. They had reached their room by then, sky swiped the key and opened the lock.

"I'm a ranger, I'm trained to pay attention." He replied. There was silence for a few moments, which he contemplated to be Z's mind trying to work out a suitable reply.

"hey sky, do you consider us friends?" she suddenly asked.

"what?" whatever he had expected, it wasn't this.

"are we friends, or are we just people who put up with each other because we have to?" she asked, sober.

"of course we're friends." He replied.

"can you keep a secret then?" she asked, and he saw that same uncertainty in her eyes as he had seen when he had inquired about her daughter.

The two were now sitting on the bedspread; there was only one bed in the room, guess a lot of guests didn't come to visit SPD. Or if they did, they were expected to sleep together.

"of course I can keep a secret, you can tell me anything." He replied, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"sky, I don't know why, but I have a feeling you will understand my story. I don't know why, but it is you I want to tell." she said, her voice cracking.

"tell me z, get it out, you will feel better."

"well, don't judge me, but, I was thirteen," she began, her voice a bare whisper, "I lived with my uncle and aunt, my parents had died a while back. They had a son, he was a jerk, but I didn't know what all he could do until I turned thirteen, as you know, girls reach puberty by that age, he started raping me, he used to do that every night, yes, every night." She said, sobbing, sky was speechless, he didn't know Z's life had been like that, he put his hand on her shoulder, and she buried her chest in his chest, trying to push out the horrible memories,

"you don't have to go on z," sky said, in a very gentle and caring voice. But she continued anyway.

"I got pregnant in a few weeks. And my uncle and aunt, they refused to believe that it was their son who had caused it, they called me a whore, a slut, a liar, and a lot of things, and kicked me out of the house, I was still pregnant." She continued sobbing. He gently patted her back, and she took comfort in him.

"there, there, Z, you're a strong girl, don't cry, don't cry," he consoled her, and they sat there for a whole hour, z, wrapped herself around him, sobbing, and him, consoling her. They both went to sleep that night; still holding each other's hands, both felt better that way, they realized that in one night, they had grown so much closer. Maybe the future they had seen hadn't been all that impossible after all.

A/N: there you go! pls review. and also, they are going to fall in love in this story itself. don't worry about that.


	6. Ch- Past

**A/N: this is just a basic fic giving a history of the rangers, and what happened to them. R&R**

**Ch-6: Past**

The next morning, sky woke up to find z already in the shower. He could hear the water running. He himself got to his old routine of having about fifty push-ups before doing anything else, and so he was all sweaty when Z came out of the bathroom.

"hey sky." She softly said. Her demeanor was completely changed. Usually if she saw him first thing in the morning, her reaction was like, 'oh, _you're_ up.' Or, 'my day is screwed.'

But today, she had greeted him with a gentle smile.

"hi Z," it was his duty to return the favor.

"so, sky, I was wondering about what happened last night…." She began.

"you don't need to say anything. I'll not tell anyone, I promise."

"thank you sweetie." She said, and hugged him, "ooohhh, you got your sweat all over me." She grinned.

"no, You got my sweat all over you." He grinned back, they laughed together, and suddenly Z darted back into the bathroom, "I need another shower, cuz I got your sweat all over me." She shouted from inside.

Sky smiled, and shook his head, 'this girl is the one who'll get me killed' he joked to himself.

She emerged from the shower after another ten minutes, and let him in finally. She was just sitting on the bedspread, doing nothing really, when she had an idea. She got up and left, going through the SPD corridors; she came up to older sky and Z's room. She knocked, and it was a few minutes before anyone answered.

"what?" older Z snapped, she was still wearing that crimson bathrobe from last night.

"well, I was getting bored. Do you have something I can pass time with?" she asked.

"yeah, I guess you can look at my album." She said, handing Z a little case.

"thanks" younger Z replied, and went off, wondering what she and sky would be up to.

She went to her room, and looked at the virtual pictures that popped up from the case in a slide show kind of fashion. She looked at the pictures one by one.

First was of her and jack, even younger Z remembered snapping that. It was when she had gotten her camera for the first time.

The next few were of the SPD ranger squad, the one with all the rangers, as she had known.

Next were of hers and Bridge. She didn't know who had clicked them, but it had some really private moments. She knew now that this was the future, after the time the two from the past had seen. Then there were a few Halloween and Christmas ones, looking at which, it was very simple to say that she and bridge had been a couple. Then suddenly, there was a New Years Eve video. She clicked on that and it began playing. They were all on the terrace; she was there with Sky, Bridge, Syd, Cruger, some guy she didn't know, and of course, Kat Manx, who was shooting everything. It showed jack entering, and the clock striking midnight, and just as bridge was gonna come to her, sky came, and kissed her on the lips. She had initially pushed him away, but then he looked at her, and she looked at Bridge, who was standing there with an expression redder than anything she had ever seen. With Kat's commentary, she realized that she had broken up with Bridge a few weeks ago due to his more and more noxious attitude. And younger Z couldn't believe the fact that bridge Carson, sweet goofy Bridgey could ever be 'noxious'. But I guess people change.

Then after that, there were at least a hundred pictures of her and sky, and then ones of her wedding, with him. There was a wedding video, recording their vows, and it was just so sweet what each had said, it was beautiful to watch, and she realized that she wanted to be there, feel all of that in person. And then those of their first (and only) child being born. There were videos showing Kat and the others waiting outside the operation theater, waiting to be called in, and waiting for the baby to arrive. Sky was so tensed, he paced up and down the corridor, nervously rubbing his neck as he used to. The child was named Richard Daniel Tate, after both their fathers, both of them who had died. They still called him Richie.

She realized that bridge was now completely out of the picture, there were no pictured of bridge in there. The last one had been of the whole SPD team together. A lot of new people had been added to the team etc, but bridge was nowhere to be seen. She showed all these pictures to sky, once he was out of the shower, and they decided to ask the older ones for the whole story. At the bottom of the case was a small picture, printed on paper; it was of Sky, Z, Richie, and Ruth, along with Sky's mother. The whole family. It was beautiful, but also a little sad, and both of them sat looking at the picture, without uttering a word.

A/N: sorry to all the bridge carson fans, i needed a villain, and i couldn't do any better. i know it is a very confusing chapter, so please post your questions in the reviews, and i'll answer them in the next chapter, in a form of conversation between the characters.


	7. Ch- Information

A/N: if anyone had confusion for the ages of the rangers and stuff, here's a brief summary.

when SPD begins, the rangers are all around twenty/twenty one. Z was thirteen when she had Ruth, that makes the date, around six or seven years before SPD. sam was ten in the series, so, it would make him about three years older to Ruth. in the story, twenty years after SPD series, the rangers are forty/forty one Sam would be thirty, and Ruth would be twenty seven. so, it's not all that complex. also, Sky and Z's son is seventeen years old. PS. there are 2 squads, A and B. A has Omega, Cyro, Nova, Epsilon etc, B has Red blue Green etc. Ruth and Sam are in A, and Sky and Z's son is in B.

**Ch-7: Information**

Whatever had happened, sky and Z were still stuck in the future, and they had to capture two aliens, Count Time o' clock, and DeeZee Vaughn, the guy they had promised their medic guy, who had told them to call him Vyrox, and so, they decided to get into work.

They went to a feline alien people called 'La Lady Noire' to find info about DeeZee Vaughn. They say, lady noire knows EVERYTHING that goes on in the under world. They were led into the deep chambers of lady noire, after paying an exorbitant amount, for half an hour.

"Welcome kiddies." Noire welcomed sky and Z, "what brings you here?"

"Well, first of all, don't call me a kid." Z began,

"tune down the sass kid." She said, rather rudely.

"well, okay, just tell us where to find this guy, and we'll be on our way" Sky replied, showing her the picture of DeeZee that they had managed to acquire the previous day.

"oh, is this Vaughn?" she squealed, "yeah, I remember my fling avec lui. Oui, oui, oui, not a very nice chap, last I heard, he was with Carson." she said, in a very exaggerated French accent, which was identifiably fake.

"did you say Carson?" Z ears stood up, hearing the name,

"how much did you already pay?" noire asked, laying back in her chair,

sky said the number, and the lady said, "maybe a little bit more," and told them what she thought was a little, but the rangers paid nevertheless, as the trip was financed by SPD.

"well, how about you tell us where to find and take down Vaughn, and we'll take your leave?" Z asked, now annoyed.

"sure." She replied, took a cigarette from a case, and lit it. After blowing several rings of smoke, she began, "DeeZee Vaughn, one of the most notorious drug lords of the NewTech City. He is known for spoiling the youth of many people. The old red ranger of SPD, ya might remember, Carson, he got in lieu of him, and now, they're partners, and the best ones in the business. Hard to believe the garçon once used to belong to SPD. You should see him now. He's the ringleader of drug links, gangs, and pretty much anything illegal that ever goes on in NTC. He's even taken over Vaughn, indirectly of course. Of course, when that enfoiré of a commander, Schuyler, disabled him for a little while. Took him real time to get back on his feet, but now he's good, and back in business. Carson is a real hottie. They say, some girl at SPD broke his heart, and he started drugs. What I think is that it is in one's blood that leads them into these rings. I mean, if this was the case, every next man in NewTech would be a gang leader. Non, non, non, it is in the blood, and that boy has it." She kept ranting about stuff, about bridge and vaughn's partnership, and sky and Z took notes, she used the word, 'enfoiré' a lot of times, and Z was forced to ask Sky, "what the hell does enfoire mean?"

"it has a lot of meanings, none of them are particularly nice." Sky replied. Hearing this, Z searched Google, and grinned at what it showed her.

"she calls you, Schuyler Marcus Tate, an enfoiré" she whispered and burst into laughter.

Lady noire was completely undisturbed by the conversation the two young people were having.

Half an hour of continuous ranting later, sky and Z emerged from the chambers, with a terrible headache.

"okay, we know where DeeZee Vaughn can be found." Sky began,

"Let's take off for today, I don't think I can even make it back to the base." Z replied, putting her hand over his mouth.

"well, we can take off, but I wanna see the future NTC!" sky protested.

"well, why don't I go back, and you can explore the city as much as you want." Z replied, drowsily walking back to the jeep.

"jeez Z, you're in a mood," sky said, sarcastically.

"great then, I'm gonna go back to SPD, my head is aching, my whole body is shaking, and I can't focus. We haven't eaten anything since last night, and that also I threw up this morning, so technically we haven't eaten anything since the snacks we had last evening."

"there's a way to retain your dinner, don't drink after eating." Sky replied nonchalantly.

"Sure, _you're_ a teetotaler." Z mocked.

"oh come on, I don't drink that much that I have to throw up _every _morning."

"it's not every morning, just Saturdays." She replied, got into the jeep, and drove off, leaving him stranded, not knowing where to go.

"And I wonder what's wrong with me!" he muttered out loudly to himself.

X-X-X

Sky grinned as he leisurely walked over to Z and the Jeep, alongside a very grinning Ruth, half an hour after Z had left him stranded on the roads of the new NTC.

"you know, driving with an expired license is illegal." Ruth grinned.

"what are you two doing here?" younger Z asked, really pissed off.

"you left me stranded, so, I called Ruth to pick me up." Sky smirked.

"yep, and then we got your call, and here we are to bail you out of prison." Ruth completed.

"okay, Miss Delgado, you have the charges of driving with a license that expired in 2029. But seeing your age, I doubt you were more than four years of age at that time." The inspector said, giving Z a stink eye.

"It's a long story." Z said, while the two SPD rangers bailed her out.

"well, viola. Daughter saves mother!" Ruth said, and she and sky burst into laughter.

"you two get along really well don't you?" Z asked, still sour, "ganging up on me?"

As the three of them walked around SPD, going to Vyrox, and the commander(s) to tell them the news about Bridge Carson, and DeeZee Vaughn, they saw that cadet, they had seen sky grill on the simulator, talking to Z,

he was saying, "please commander, Mr. Tate is being very… jerky I know he's kinda disabled, but him on the simulator isn't helping. I think I deserve a chance to be a power ranger. Ma'am, I think commander Tate is leveling up the simulator, so that I can't be there. I think I can defeat him in a normal battle, but seeing his 'condition' I won't ask to do so. I just want to level up, so, ma'am, can you please take a test and level me up?" he said, older Z just crossed her arms and listened.

"here we go again…" Ruth said.

"what happened to him?" sky asked, younger Z was to fuming to say anything.

"well, it has been more than three months since Fred Smith has been asking for a promotion, and Dad, I mean, sky hasn't given him one yet." Ruth explained.

"well, he I mean I must have a reason, no?" sky asked.

"let's find out," Z said, breaking the conversation, as she saw older Sky coming out of the shadows.  
"cadet Smith, if you can put up a fight with me, even for one whole minute, I will promote you to B-Squad." He said, Smith looked embarrassed.

"Sir, how did you get well?" he asked, quite shaken.

"that isn't important. What is, is that we have a little 'showdown' pending."

"Well, okay sir." Smith said, but his thoughts said, _what will this old geyser do? I mean, it has been more than four years since he has fought with even a fly. I'm into B-Squad, that's for sure. A_nd let out a smirk

Younger Sky and Z were a little skeptical, "don't you think one minute is a little too less?" she asked him; he just shrugged.

"Trust me, this will be fun." Ruth said, as older Z joined their side.

"I know." She said, grinning.

Both of them took fighting stances, and on three Fred lunged onto Sky, and then the audience had no idea what happened, as in less than ten seconds, Fred Smith was pinned onto the floor, unable to move.

There was applause.

"How long?" older sky asked.

"Seven seconds. Impressive." Ruth said, looking into her watch.

"Seven? I think I have lost my touch." He said, and they all had a laugh.

"You see Cadet Smith, there WAS a reason why I wasn't promoting you." Sky said, and walked out, victorious, and triumphant.

A/N: i know, loooooonnnnnngggg chapter;) and for those who don't know what the french word 'enfoiré' means, be sure to google it, i'm not revealing the suspense.


	8. Ch- Chemistries

A/N: cute Sky/Z moment ahead. and the part two in in answer to Z Tate's question. Review pls.

**Ch-8: Chemistries**

That night, sky and Z headed into their room, on their way, they encountered Ruth and Sam again.

"sup you two?" Sky asked.

"oh, lookie, it's your parents." Sam joked.

"quit it guys, I'm not really in a mood." Z said,

"See, that's my mom." Ruth said, and Z without any further words, walked away.

Sky followed her, Sam and Ruth just shrugged.

"what was that about?" he asked, entering the room after her, and locking the door.

"I don't feel well." She replied.

"is this still about your car getting towed?" he asked, now a little annoyed by her attitude. They hadn't talked at all, all evening.

"no, that's not what it is about!" she said, getting into the shower, and he shouted from behind, "THEN WHAT IS IT ABOUT?"

she didn't reply, so, annoyed, he opened the door to the shower, and stuck his head in.

"What is it about?" he asked again, having a view of a completely naked Z Delgado.

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL SKY! ARE YOU DRUNK? YOU CAN'T JUST BARGE INTO ANYONE'S SHOWER LIKE THAT!" she yelled, wrapping a towel around herself.

"Tell me what this is about, or I won't leave." He said, letting himself in.

"You son of a bitch." Z said, picturing how the others would react if she returned to the past with Sky on a gurney.

"listen to me, Z, I'm sorry for doing this, but I need to know what's been bothering you; it's been killing me to see you like that."

"why do you care what's bothering me?"

He slowly said, "because I care about you."

"wh-" she was just speechless.

"yes, Z, it might just be this air from the future or something, but I realized that I care about you. Seeing you upset, first about Ruth, then about the car, or whatever this is, I feel like I have to do something, I mean, I just don't know what to say, I am kinda bad at expressing feelings." He ended annoyed with himself.

"I think I know what you want to say, I feel the same way." She replied, leaning closer to his face, "I see you getting along so well with Ruth, I feel a kind of burning sensation, like you should be with me, not her, my…" she trailed off, they looked into each other's eyes, and he grasped her cheeks, in his palms, and gently pressed his lips against hers.

She lost all consciousness in the kiss and kissed him back with all the passion she had, the gentle kiss turned into a heated make-out session. After a few long minutes of intense kissing, both of them pulled apart for air, completely out of breath.

"you feel that way?" he asked, panting.

"yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" she exclaimed, and he picked her up, kissing her again, as her towel fell off…

X-X-X

Meanwhile, outside in the corridors, older Sky was up. Z was asleep, she was tired after their daylong lovemaking session, but he was worried, hell worried about what the younger ones had told him, about Carson, and DeeZee Vaughn.

His thoughts raced back to the time he was their age. The first time he had kissed Z.

It had been one of those late night watch-out thingies, and they had been assigned together. She was dating bridge, but they felt deeply for each other, it was like they just clicked together, and they had become really good friends, both had wanted something, and those two got kinda drunk on beers that night, they knew it was a little out of order, yeah right, it was completely out of line, but they did it anyway, bored to death, and after a few drunken games, kissed each other passionately. This was a little too out of line, and it ended up making both of them uncomfortable with each other for weeks when they realized what they had done, even their friends noticed it. Syd broke up with sky as he was acting weird, and Bridge and Z broke up for reasons Z couldn't explain. Truth was, Bridge suspected Z to have feelings for Sky. He was definitely proven right.

But anyway, on New Years Eve, about two and a half weeks after their kiss at the HQ, he finally gathered up enough courage to go on, and kiss her, in front of everybody they knew.

That was it for Bridge Carson, he felt just too much. First she dumps him, then she hooks up with the guy who he called his best friend. This was just not fair at all, he thought she loved him, and then she left him, for Sky, Sky Tate, the machine! He kept his anger in check for almost a couple years, after which, Sky got promoted to the commander position as Birdy retired and Cruger became the supreme commander, he was now the red ranger, with rage worse than Yosemite Sam, and finally collapsed… he became evil, a supervillain with psychic powers, and then (illegally) got into a number of drug rackets, murderous gangs etc, became a horribly corrupt officer, all of it while being the SPD red ranger, until finally in the wake of Syd's divorce, he was discovered.

That in itself had been quite a story, with Syd just signing the divorce papers at the court, and then coming out of the courtroom, just to see him talking to a criminal. He hadn't said he'd be there... nor did he have a case's hearing to go to. What was he doing here? Something was up, Syd realized and decided to eavesdrop on the conversation. If it hadn't been for that impromptu visit to the court, maybe Bridge Carson's darker side would've never been discovered...

Then he ran away from SPD, and in battles, he turned Sky into an invalid, a broken man; that happened on the day of Sky and Z's 15th anniversary, when he crashed the party and paralyzed Sky's legs.

Now he was back.

All these thoughts ran through Sky's brain as he ran co-ordinate searches to find the location of criminal psychopath, murderer, rapist, and scandal Bridge Carson, his once upon best friend…

He knew it was entirely his fault. Yet, he couldn't do anything about it…

X-X-X

A/N: my apologies again to the bridge carson fans, but i need a villain, and who better than an ex boyfriend. also, Bridge's character is inspired by Drake Merwin. if you know who that is, leave a reply in the comments.


	9. Ch- Psychopath

A/N: this chapter might be rated M for violence and cruelty.

**Ch-9: Psychopath**

"That's a new one" Carson said, as he flipped through the newstabs in the news-stands in the New Tech City mall, The Midspace. He was a wanted criminal, and so, he had to disguise himself in a pulled down hood of a hooded sweatshirt, only his thin lips, pressed together in a scowl were visible, his hands had gloves on, those same old leather gloves he used to wear when he was in SPD. He looked pretty normal to anybody looking at him right now.

But if someone would have pulled his hood down, they'd be in for quite a shock, for it was his eyes that gave an insight to his soul, which was just an empty void.

"what?" asked his 'friend' cum 'accomplice' DeeZee Vaughn. He was an alien from the planet Whiparmos. He looked fairly human, and anybody would've considered him to be, had it not been for the ten-foot long tentacle that was his right arm. DeeZee wasn't his real name, it was Crestos, but to gel better with the Earth crowd, he killed a civilian, DZ Vaughn, and took on his Id.

The tentacle had a way to hide itself. He'd wrap it around his own waist, and then wear something baggy, so it hid the tentacle.

Anyone looking at the two would think they were a skinny nerdy guy, who's too shy to pull down his hood, and an obese man who somehow got his right arm chopped off. DeeZee was wearing a simple baggy shirt with full sleeves, with the right one hanging limp, he had a baseball cap on, and covered his own eyes with a pair of HUGE sunglasses.

"look at this, they've removed the bounty from our names, wonder what went wrong?" he showed him the article on the tab.

"looks like the commander says he'll hunt for us himself." DeeZee said, reading through. He found the Earth language very funny, but nevertheless he could read it.

"herself" Bridge corrected,

"no, it clearly says 'commander Tate himself'," DeeZee pointed out.

"WHAT! TATE IS ALIVE?" Bridge Carson yelled, "I killed him!"

"no, there's a picture of him, just scroll down the article, look, here." DeeZee showed him a picture of Sky, from the day before, when a bunch of journalists had gone to interview him. It was on the decision of his to withdraw the bounty on Bridge Carson's capture.

"I clearly remember throwing him from the top of his own mansion!" Bridge exclaimed.

"well, here he is now. And he's hunting for you."

"let's go, I feel like someone's watching." Bridge whispered, and then swiftly walked off.

DeeZee followed.

"when will you finally take me to your own lair?" DeeZee asked, catching up to him in a roadside café.

"a latte for me, and a an espresso for him." bridge told the waiter, as DeeZee sat down.

"answer me. We always head to my place for all the schemes. All I know about you is that you live in NTC. Answer me, or I myself might turn you in." DeeZee said.

"you? Turn me in?" bridge scoffed, he pulled his hood down, and DeeZee saw his eyes, those cold, soulless, bloodshot eyes, which contained records of every past sin that he had committed. Those numerous murders, the cruel tortures on his prisoners, his sadistic nature, all was visible through those eyes. It was agony to just look at him, a long scar ran from his left temple to his nose, a small present from his ex-girlfriend, after he killed (or thought he did) her husband.

"yeah, you'll turn me in." he said, looking at his panic-stricken face, and pulled his hood back up, "but you do have a point. We can head to my place." He said, matter-of-factly. Paying the bill, tipping the waiter from the wallet he had gotten from a man who'd never see the light of day again.

X-X-X

It was morning, around eight, when younger Sky woke up. He couldn't believe what had happened. He couldn't believe it even when he turned around, and saw his brunette teammate lying naked on bed beside him, her head nestled against his bare chest. He ran his fingers through her brown locks, and remembered the previous night. He remembered the argument, the confession, the kiss, and most clearly of all, he remembered the intimacy, the sex.

She turned around, gently opened her eyes, letting out a small yawn, and then opened her eyes fully to get a complete view of her blond teammate with whom she had slept with the previous night.

"good morning sweetie." He said, smiling, she came over and kissed his cheeks, "good morning sweetie" she replied, imitating him, they kissed again, on the lips, and then he asked, "does this mean we're official?" he asked,

"I guess we saved bridge a trip down the evil lane." She replied, grinning.

"I'm serious," he said,

"well, then yes, we are, though, I do have one question, do you think we jumped into bed a little too fast?" she asked, first smiling, then turning serious.

"yeah, I guess, but I saw you naked, and it was a little hard to control myself." Sky said, blushing.

"I'm not complaining, I mean, you were great, I can never forget the last night, you're the best guy I've ever been with."

"then where's the problem?" he asked,

"well, I was wondering, older us did have a sort of, you know, special first time, sooooo…." She trailed off.

"they did?" sky asked,

"well, yeah, older me told me that you planned a special evening on valentines day, and that was when the two of them did it for the first time." Z said.

"special evening?"

"yeah, something like a yacht or something, with dinner and dancing.

"wow, old me is way too cheesy" sky commented, and they laughed, kissing again. since the two of them weren't on official duty, they decided to have another round of sex before heading out to the job of finding DeeZee Vaughn and Count Time o'clock.

X-X-X

It wasn't a very nice place, but what do you expect from a psychopath? The floor was quite messy, it was a villa cleared of it's previous inhabitants years ago. It was amazing how a fake id, forged lease agreements, some rumors about the inhabitants running away to Mexico because they were illegals, and a little bit of isolation of the hilltop villa could tip all authorities off his scent. Currently Bridge Carson lived here as Hans Corseaux.

DeeZee knew if the place wasn't inhabited by Carson it'd be a beautiful villa where everybody would want to come to. There was a weak stench in the ground floor rooms. "I haven't had much time lately to dispose off the bodies in the basement," he explained.

"tell me something, do you have any sort of obsessions?" he asked, adding in his mind_, like every psychopath?_

"obsessions, I guess yeah, I mean, I collect one item from every person I kill. Usually it's something from the sob story they tell me, then look here, this is my special ink collection, it is actually the blood from those poor suckers," he said, pulling up a collection of small vials that contained a viscous red liquid.

"wow, you really are a psycho" DeeZee said, laughing, he had intended it as a joke, but that wasn't the spirit in which Carson eemed to take it, as his mood darkened, and he replied, his voice, dangerously low,

"you can call me Bridge, or Bridgey, or Carson, or even Burner, but call me anything else, and your dead body never leaves this place." He said, pulling his hood down again, so DeeZee could see how serious he was.

This was going to be a long day for Crestos.

A/N: Creepy no? wait for the ultimate showdown between sky, Z and Bridge, coming in the next few chapters.


	10. Ch- Tracking

A/N: I'm really sorry about the delay in the updates. i have been really busy, with homework and stuff. but here's another chapter, i finally managed enough time to write and upload it. hope you guys like it.

**Ch-10: Tracking**

It would've been easy enough to track down Count Time O'clock had the rangers not all had bee busy with DeeZee Vaughn.

It was Ruth who ended up tracking DeeZee, he said, he was last seen at a roadside café with a strange man in a hood. There was a traffic cam which had recorded the whole conversation.

Well, the exchange taking place, for the camera had a glitch and could only record visuals, not the audios.

She showed the footage to the commanders, their young selves, and the squad, which, for now, only included Sam, the Cyro ranger, whose name wasn't known to the younger Sky and Z yet, because the others were either wounded, or in some other part of the galaxy.

They watched as the man pulled down his hood, just for a few seconds, and just like DeeZee, all their mouths flew open. The man in the picture was easily recognizable to all of them, (except Cyro) they had all shared precious moments with him, but none of them could believe what they saw; Least of all, the younger duo.

"is…is…is that Bridge?" Z stuttered.

"yes, that is him all right" older Z scoffed.

"can you believe it, it could've been Sky in that place if you two hadn't had that night watch together?" Sam joked trying to lighten the mood, but it didn't help, rather, it darkened the mood even more.

All of them, just by looking at his face could tell that the man had no soul left, no conscience, no guilt, all there was, was hatred, and cold reasoning, devoid of all warmth, and insensitivity.

"This is the third sighting of Bridge Carson in the last few weeks, he's playing with us." older Sky said, getting up, "we need to get him, show him we can be better."

"what?" younger Sky asked, confused.

"he's challenging us. Whenever there are more than one sightings of him, recorded on a camera, within a short period, it means that he is mocking us, asking us to come after him, or he'd come after us."

"last time we didn't go after him, so he crashed at our house, I don't want that happening again" Z said.

"welll, then what are we waiting for, let's go and get him, track him down, and blow him to shreds!" Cyro said, pumped up,

"not yet, Draco we can't just, bust in there and kill him" older Z said. so Draco, that was Cyro's real name. sky grinned, it kinda rhymed.

"why not?" younger Sky asked.

"partially because we don't know where he is, and partly because both of them feel guilty for driving him mad." Ruth said, dryly.

"I guess she's right" old Sky said.

"of course I'm right, and I think Draco's right, we should determine his location, and blow'em up." Ruth scoffed.

"I find it hard to believe that she isn't your daughter" younger Z looked at both the Skys.

"it can come from the mother you know" younger one defended himself, and his older self.

"okay, that's enough for today, you're all dismissed." Commander Z Tate was irritated.

"yes ma'am" all of them said in unison, and left.

X-X-X

On their way, Sky and Z from the past caught up with Ruth, Sam and Draco. "What are you guys up to?" he asked, but it was Z who came to the point.

"I know you guys didn't tell them everything. What was it that you're hiding."

"you really think we'd hide anything from our commanders?" Ruth asked, pretending innocence.

"you guys haven't told them you're dating" sky countered.

"okay, you got us there, but what makes you think that we're hiding something related to the mission from them?"

"I know liars when I see them" Z said, crossing her arms.

"okay, fair enough, why do you want to know?" Draco said, moving towards the two.

"we know they have something to hide, we know that you have something to hide, and we know that bridge Carson has something to hide. So we're starting by finding out the secrets." Sky said, looking at Z.

"okay, here's a deal, you tell us your secret, we'll tell you ours."

"you go first" Z said.

"we know bridge Carson's location, the car they were driving, in he video, that one had a traceable number plate, and was tracked to a hilltop villa." Sam said.

"okay, and for our secret, Z and I are officially dating" Sky said, proudly, and they kissed to prove it.

"great, secret for a secret." Draco said, "now, how does Carson look like, that image was quite blurry, let's get a blown up pic."

"I don't see the point, but okay" Ruth said, and spoke for all four of them.

They headed over to the computers room. There was no one in sight. Not even the cadet who had the computer duties. They looked up the chore chart, it was Frederick smith's turn, (that guy's name shows up everywhere sky thought) and he wasn't found. So they just searched the keys, found them on the cabinet. Going through the files they realized that the video clip they had seen, not even tem minutes ago, was not there, apparently, taken down, deleted.

"are you guys thinking what I am thinking?" Z asked.

They all nodded.

"there's someone inside SPD who doesn't want the video to be seen." Sam said.

"check for other videos relating to bridge Carson." Draco said, Ruth followed.

"nope, not a single one."

"you know what this means?" Sky asked.

"bridge Carson has been leading a normal life" Z said,

"being spotted by cameras, and everything, we just don't know that because someone deletes them before we see them" Draco supplemented.

"the three videos we saw were the ones we had gotten our hands on, before the rat did" Sam said, and Ruth continued.

"there's no pattern, there's a villain, a henchman, and a mole"

there was silence as everybody processed the information.

it was Sky who broke the silence, "guys, Friederich is a Jewish name."

Frederick and Friederich, nobody had ever looked up the records.

"and Smith continues to be the most used fake name in the history of fake names" Sam said. There was silence.

x-x-x-x

A/N: i looked it up, by the way, Friederich is an actual german name and it is jewish. it's pronounced the same as Frederick.


	11. Ch- Unexplored Pt1

A/N: I know I took forever to update it, and I'm VERY sorry, I promise my following updates will be more 'timely'. I think there are about three or so chapters left.

**Ch-11: Unexplored**

Finding out about Friederich Smith's true identity, and Bridge Carson's current address provided the five of them with a new set of tasks. 1. Catching Smith red handed, and get a confession and 2. Tracking down bridge Carson, and DeeZee Vaughn, and arresting them.

"where the fuck is Smith?" Draco growled, picking up a D-Squad cadet by his collar.

"sir, he just went into the washroom." The cadet said, whinnying.

"which floor?" Ruth asked.

"third."

"well, then that's where we go!" the rangers chased to the third floor.

Z and Ruth positioned themselves outside the washroom, not interested in going into a men's washroom, with their guns hooked up to shoot any second, but none of the rangers morphed.

Sky, Sam and Draco went inside, their guns also cocked up, ready to fire.

"Freddy?" Sam cautiously muttered, and in a few seconds, Freddy emerged from behind one of the stalls, nonchalant, and unexpecting of the trouble waiting for him.

"what is it?" he asked, then saw the guns, and his eyes grew alert, though his posture did nothing to show the vigilance.

"Freddy, if you simply tell us who you are, we will take you in gently." Draco asked.

"what if I don't feel like it?"

"then we have enough evidence to prove it." Sky chuckled.

"well, what are you here for then, if you already know?"

"I think I'd like to hear it from you." Sam said, leaning back against the wall.

"well, since you already know everything, I don't mind repeating it." Freddy said, sitting on the phone of the washroom itself. Sky gestured, and Ruth and Z also came in. Z sat by Sky's side, while Ruth continued to stand.

"as you have already found out I believe, yes, I am Bridge Carson's son." He said, and waited a few seconds to let the information sink in.

"and yes, it is true that I have been deleting all the videos of my father ever caught on the net."

"we figured that out. But how are you here? How have Sky and Z Tate not realized that you are his son?"

"Oh they know. That was the least they could do." Freddy scoffed.

"they KNOW?" Z asked.

"yes, and they know how well they screwed up my father's life. No matter how they show it or not, they know they're the ones responsible for what he is now."

"why do you do all this for that psychopathic freak of a murderer?" Ruth asked.

"that's a lot of adjectives Miss Delgado." He scoffed.

"just answer her question." Sam snapped.

"well, first of all, I know all that my father has done, and honestly, I don't approve of his actions, but I don't approve of yours too. Sky and Z Tate betrayed him. And looking at their son, Richard, he's in my squad, they haven't been the best of parents. They try, I'll give them that, but Richard's ended up arrogant, conceited, annoying, and bossy. Look at me! Apart from Sky Tate, pretty much everybody loves me!"

"NOT everybody." Draco scoffed.

"oh face it. I'm always the one to break the ice in a group; I'm the one who jokes around, and always, I'm the one who stands by people in their toughest times. I'm the ne everyone looks for when they need a shoulder to cry on, that includes you Ruth, you did come to me when you couldn't tell Sam that you liked him. The people who hang out with that jerko Richie are only with him for popularity."

"for once I agree with you." Ruth muttered, if anybody herd they ignored.

"my father is everything I have, everything I ever had. It wasn't Sky or Z who used to wake me up in the morning, make me toast, get me ready for school, it wasn't them. It was him. He was the one who'd stay up with me all night to get my homework done. He was the one who worked multiple shifts to pay off my bicycle when I was ten and had a fit on one. He was the one who always stood by me all my hardships. I learnt that from him. You, Ruth of all people understand that? no?" he looked at her, then continued.

"he was an amazing father, and being able to pay off his debt by all this is the least I can ever do." Friederich ended, gently getting up, and then suddenly all the rangers felt a sort of energy and the next moment, they were blown back on their backs and landed onto the floor, except Ruth, and was about to stop Freddy, but didn't.

"energy surges is my power." He chuckled, and ran off, the others looked up to Ruth, wondering why she didn't stop him.

"Why didn't you stop him?" Sam asked, struggling to get to his feet while Sky got up, and helped Draco and Z up.

"how did you not get knocked down?" Sky asked, shocked.

"my power is resistance against any given power, whatever it is. I can pass through Sky's force field, unscarred; Z's duplicates are like holograms to me, and Sam's teleportation can't move me an inch. I can also deflect laser blasts." She said, to Sky.

"NOT important!" Draco said, annoyed.

"how could you let him get away?" Z asked, Ruth was silent,

"guys you go catch Fred up, and we'll join you later." Sam said, pushing all others out.

"okay, get her right. She's not in her head." Draco said, running off.

After they were gone, Sam placed a hand on Ruth's shoulder, "what happened Ruthie?" he asked tenderly.

"Sam, I—" she broke off.

"you now you can trust me, right?" he assured softly.

"Sam, I feel him you know, I can connect to him. My parents were never with me while I was growing up. It was a lady who took care of me. I don't even know if she was related to me or not, but she was everything to me. Like Freddy said, it was her who practically did everything for me, from school homeworks to bandaging my wounds. She died a few years ago, some time before I enrolled in SPD, only after that did I actually look for my real parents, leading me to SPD." She said, and then buried her head in the nook on Sam's shoulder blade.

He pressed his lips against her hair, and placed his hand on her back, trying to soothe her. This was the soft side of Ruthanne Delgado that he was seeing ofr the first time.

Ruth was always so calm, composed; she was funny, joyful, and more often than not, sarcastic. It was hard to believe that she had so many emotions bottled up.

He calmed her, and soothed her, and tried his best to ease her.

It was only as they were trotting back to her room that they heard a lot of commotion.

#tobecontinued


	12. Ch- Unexplored Pt2

A/N: me being hypocritical in the last chapter was a result of the chapter being incomplete. Here's part two of unexplored.

And I also answer Z Tate's question here.

**Ch-12: Unexplored Pt.2**

"Sky why did you NOT use your force field?" Z asked as she Sky and Draco chased after an escaped Freddy.

"I didn't even know he was going to use his power."

"I agree with him. I hadn't even thought Freddy smith— Carson, would have a power, or I could've used mine too."

"yours?" Sky asked.

"yeah, mine, I can make myself and others around me intangible. It's like a HUGE blanket of nothingness. You'll feel like nothing can touch you. Guns, swords, lasers, joys, sorrows, pain… It'll have no effect on your physical state of being as such, but of course, if you don't feel the pain you can fight despite the wound causing it. I use it only when somebody needs relief. I'm like a human painkiller." He chuckled, "I also cure emotions caused of hurtfulness."

"WOW, and HOW? I thought only certain people had powers who were born to parents with powers?" Z asked, confused.

"yeah, my mom has powers."

"your MOM?

"Sydney Henderson." He said, like it was 'duh'.

"you're Syd's SON?"

"well, yeah, but I've lived with my father most of my life." He said, "not the time guys, we got a con to catch."

They made their way to SPD's main gate via a short cut, because they knew that was where Freddy would be heading to get out of SPD; there was no other way out.

They arrived just in time to see Freddy leaving, and imagine his shock when he saw two Zs appear in front of him while there was one standing right behind him.

"wait wha—" he stuttered.

"you obviously didn't do your homework." Z said, crossing her arms, "The best strategy when going into an enemy base camp is to know everything you can about those whom you're going to spy on. Surprisingly, you still don't know that I can duplicate myself."

"commander Tate doesn't use her powers." He tried to defend himself meekly.

"well, she might not, but I do." Z said, as her duplicates attacked him, he used his power, and Sky, now aware of what was coming next, revved up his force field, encasing Draco and Z with him.

Since Z was protected by Sky's power, her duplicates were also not affected by Freddy's power, and he was pinned to the ground by Z's duplicates in minutes, as he was distracted wondering why his power didn't work. (They also had the advantage of being two against one)

"what is your problem?" he asked, scowling.

"we're the power rangers last time I checked." Sky joked, "it's our job to bring bad guys in."

"I'm NOT a bad guy."

"ssshhhh" Draco put up a finger trying to shush Freddy, "let the machine do it's job." He said, holding up his judgment scanner.

"Friederich Carson, you are charged with the expunge of evidence against a wanted criminal." He said, citing charges.

"that ought to be enough of a reason for at least six years of imprisonment." Z mouthed Sky, and he shot her a look as if saying 'I Know'.

The scanner did it's work, and in a minute, showed a red cross.

"GUILTY" all three of them said in unison, a ray of energy shot out from the morpher, and trapped Freddy smith in a containment card.

The mission was a success so far.

This was easy, trapping Freddy smith. He was a newbie. As they were leaving to talk to the commanders regarding Freddy's capture, Z asked, "Sky, do we become that horrible parents?" she sounded uncertain.

"guys if you wanna, I can leave you two alone." Draco helpfully suggested.

"no, stay, we might need some info on the people from the future," Z said, then adding, "if we already don't have enough."

"Z, I don't think Freddy was right in anything he said. You and I both know what Bridge has become: a psychopathic rapist and murderer." He paused to let the words sink in, then continued,

"a man like that, no matter whatever good he did for his son, can never actually BE good. I am inclined to believe that what he did for Frederick was also in his own selfish interest. He wanted someone to have his back when he got old. He wants a blood-relative who isn't against him, he wants someone to do his bidding without being questioned. That's why he's put up this façade of this amazing ideal father. So that he can make everyone else look bad. For all we know, Freddy's mother might be some woman he raped, and who left the child with him."

Z gasped, then after a minute asked, "what does this have to do with anything?"

"let me continue, I was thinking about this whole thing while your duplicates were fighting. So let me put forward my analysis." Sky said.

"and that is?"

"what Bridge wanted, was a SCOURGE to do his bidding." He paused, looked at Z, placed his hands on her shoulders, facing her.

"you mean to say whatever Freddy said he believed in was all a mirage created by his own father so he could use him?"

"to summarize, yes"

"can I add something?" Draco asked, interrupting their little moment.

"go ahead."

"the commanders are not bad parents, they never were. Like I said, not everyone liked Freddy, they thought," he corrected himself, "we thought he was a little too proud of being able to sweet talk people. The only person he wasn't able to sweet talk was commander Tate… Mr. Tate to be clearer.

What he cleverly phrased as being able to make friends, break the ice in groups, and all such stuff, is a softer way of saying that he can sweet talk people into doing what he wanted, something he DEFINITELY got from Carson. And he managed to sweet talk Ruth into letting him get away."

Sky and Z both had contemplative expressions, as if trying to place this.

"what about Richard and Ruth?"

"there was a lady who had taken care of Ruth ever since she was a little girl of one. She'd apparently found her, and decided to take care of her. Ruth was VERY attached to her, and was devastated when she died. And she had taken good care of Ruth. She turned out to be an amazing girl." Draco ended.

"And how do you know about all this?"

"my sister, she's an empath. Her power, that is. She can learn about stuff from people's memories, and she keeps it to herself, never revealing any of it unless asked. I asked her, she told me. So basically she knows EVERYTHING. The pressure of it gets high sometimes, and she acts out, therefore, we keep her under surveillance, and she doesn't meet a lot of people."

There was silence. Superpowers were a blessing as well as a curse. They walked in silence up to the doors of the HQ.

"guys, I don't think we need to tell the commanders about this little encounter just yet." Draco suddenly spoke up.

"why not?"

"the Tates knew that Freddy was Carson's son, yet they didn't bother to inform us, I think we should inform them only _after_ we capture Carson." Draco said, and the younger couple seemed to consider it.

"I guess you're right, besides, we also have to capture this time o'clock monster, and nobody seems interested in doing so." Sky commented.

"yeah, he's right, I don't wanna grow old in the future." Z whined.

"well, I think I know how to find him…" Draco said, going into his thinking mode.

X-X-X

A/N: in case, it wasn't clear, Draco is Syd's son with Luke, (Syd's ex, remember?)

and that commotion at the end of the last chapter will be revealed in chapter 13...


	13. Ch- Forked-Up

A/N: I'm really sorry for the delay. I think I'm updating after like what? six months.

**Ch- 13: Forked-up**

Omega and Nova made their way to the huge noise erupting in the common room, and found it a mess. There were a couple of seventeen or eighteen inches robots fighting with a huge crowd around them, cheering. The couch of the room had been shifted to one of the corners, sitting on top of which was Richie, sipping some sort of energy drink, not at all appalled by all the commotion.

"what the fuck?" Sam said seeing all that, his mouth hung open.

"who did this?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend.

"I think I know," she said, with gritted teeth. She went up to Richie, and picked him up by his collar, "what the fuck Richard? What did you do?"

"why do I have to do anything EVERYTIME something is out of order?" he asked, struggling.

"because you have a long convincing history of it." she snapped.

"you know, you're not so nice yourself either," he coughed up.

"well, I guess then we know where it comes from." She said.

"let me go!" he said, and she did, out of mercy for her half brother.

"okay, so you say you've had no hand in this commotion?" Sam asked.

"nope. Not a single one! See, both my hands are here." He joked, showing them his hands.

"quit it."

"okay."

"what do we do now? If the commanders see this, then they'll kill us all."

"well, I can make them stop…."

"you can?"

He slanted his eyebrow, as if asking, 'try me'.

"do it." she said, and he raised his fingers to his temples, and suddenly, everybody froze, they turned around, and all the young cadets, apart from Ruth and Sam turned around, saluted, and scurried off as if they had such important tasks to do. Richie went to the robots, picked them up, and shoved them into the cupboard.

"whoa! How'd you do that?" Sam asked,

"my power. Gives me control of minds. Mass control, like Slade." He explained, and Sam realized that yes, he had in fact, never seen Richard Tate use his powers.

"wow!" and Sam had thought his powers were amazing.

Suddenly, the commanders came into the room, Z running, and Sky chasing her.

"what happened?" she asked, out of breath.

And all of them looked at Richie.

"Why the hell does everyone look at me when ANYTHING goes wrong? You people need to learn that even if I screw up once or twice, I don't do it EVERYTIME. And definitely not on intention." He said, and stormed off.  
"you think we've been treating him too harshly?" Sky asked.

"he deserves it." Ruth replied.

"he needs a second chance" Sam said, he seemed to steal words from Z's lips.

"yeah, he's right" Sky said, "remember when you guys were new at the academy and I acted all stuck up, if you hadn't tried to reach out to me, Z, maybe none of us would've been here right now. Z, you tried to get to me, tear my walls down, and well, I found out I was more than whom I thought. I was just a pig headed egomaniac, you made me Sky Tate," he looked at his wife, it was more than evident why he had fallen in love with her.

"we need to reach out to him," Z said, placing a hand around him, "we have been so busy with Bridge and SPD and God knows what else that we forgot about our kids" she looked at him, "they need us, we need to reach out to them," he nodded.

"Ruth, can you get Richie for us?" Z looked pleadingly at her daughter.

"yeah, sure" she said, and ran out to get him, she knew that her parents were finally going to give them the apology they owed her, and her brother for a long time.

A/N: I thought I'd make it a huge deal, the commotion, but then I felt like it'd disturb my storyline, cuz I have something else planned. So… I think i royally forked up the story, i mean i basically screwed it up, with the Unexplored chapters, i lost my interest in it. I think i'm going to continue now, i shouldn't give up, right?


	14. Ch- Whip-Hand

A/N: I had no idea for the title. Yeah I think I suck at titles,

* * *

**Ch- 14: Whip-hand**

"where are we heading?" Sky asked, as he, Draco and Z ran through the streets of New Tech City. They were going on foot because if they took their vehicles, it'd alert the commanders, and they didn't trust the two of them enough to let them in on their plan. They'd be sure to say that it was too risky, and overall discourage them, because that was what adults did. Technically they were adults too, but they didn't exactly fit into the 'Mature' category, did they?

The commanders had known that Freddy smith was Bridge Carson's son, and yet they hadn't done anything about it, maybe out of guilt, maybe out of pity, but either way, it didn't make them trustworthy.

This was something only the three of them had to handle.

"I ran a search, and I tracked Carson's last location, we're sure to find him there, and if not him, then maybe something that can help us more." Draco explained.

"you're really resourceful, you know that?" Z complimented, and Draco chuckled.

"sometimes you just know where to look" he shrugged, and then under Sky's infiltrating gaze, he admitted, "Aurora, my sister"

Z smiled. She kinda felt sad for this girl, who couldn't meet people, couldn't see the light of day, just because she had a power a little too powerful.

"we seem to have completely forgotten about Count Time o'Clock no?" Sky said, and Z replied, "we made a commitment to catch DeeZee Vaughn, we can't back down on it, besides, SPD can always track Time o'Clock, it won't be that hard, they can even send us back. It's possible that our own friends are working on it, so I'm not really worried. We'll find a way home, even if we don't find the Count."

"you have a point." Sky remarked, and was just about to say something when he was cut off by a breathtaking sight.

They seemed to have arrived at a beautiful hilltop villa that sat looking attentively over the city like a cat on its haunches, surrounded by beautiful trees and an all too knowing mist.

There was no way this was the residence of the psychopath. It was just too nice. It had that holiday villa feel, with vibrant colors and artistic designing, combining with a modern tech savvy outlook. Z gasped, Draco took off his sunglasses to look at it.

"he lives here?" Sky asked,

"I was given the location, I had no idea this would be here" the three were completely mesmerized by the place.

"okay, let's snap out of it, and comprehend our criminal." Sky said.  
"is that the correct usage of comp—" Z began to say but was cut off by Sky saying, "yeah yah, whatever, let's get him"

and the three made their way up the small hill by a winding path towards the house. They decided that a fight was inevitable, and so, just knocked on the door, neither wanting to take the risk of going around the house searching for the back door knowing that even missing one step would lead to a fall of about a hundred or two hundred meters.

A bulky, kinda obese man answered the door, and Draco was quick to notice that his right arm seemed to be well… not there. but he had had so many years of service at SPD that he knew better than to let the first glances fool him. Sky looked at him like he must be some sort of housekeeping help or something, but it was Z who realized that it was none other than DZ Vaughn.

"SPD hands in the air and drop your weapons!" Z said, while Vaughn grinned.

"come on in, then I'll do as you say." He said, leaving the door open. Sky, Z and Draco followed in uncertainly, afraid of what might happen next.

There they saw him taking off his shirt with one hand, and Z turned to look away for some reason, and realized she shouldn't have, because the next second, before Sky and Draco could realize it, she felt a tentacle wrap around her neck, choking the life out of her. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but was afraid only a meek "ah" left her throat. Sky and Draco seemed to be unable to do anything, like mad they attacked the tentacle, but it showed no sign at all of any injury.

She felt the hold tighten and tighten, and finally felt like she couldn't breathe anymore… wait, that was the ke—

Crestos couldn't feel the pulse in her neck anymore, and so, deciding she was dead, he let go of her, and dropped her limp body on the ground. Sky squeaked, shocked at what had happened, while Draco recovering from the shock, lunged at DZ with a laser extended, while Sky crouched down beside her, almost sobbing, "Z" he softly mumbled, obviously upset, and then, the next moment, to his surprise, she stirred, an gently opened her eyes, and he sat back in shock.

She gestured him closer, and whispered urgently to him, "I'm fine, Sky, I stopped my breath to make him think I was dead so he'd let go, let me recover a little bit, and then I'll join you in the fight." She looked over to DZ and he nodded, understanding, and went over to join Draco in the fight.

"how's Z?" Draco asked, hoping for some good news,

"she's dead" Sky shrugged, Draco's face turned white, but he couldn't process it properly as the next second, he felt a huge whip hit his chest, and blood gushed out, turning his uniform redder that it already was. He staggered back, and finally fell beside Z, as Sky morphed into the SPD blue ranger, and attacked the monster with his delta-max striker.

DZ also attacked Sky with his whip hand, but Sky being in ranger form, easily caught it in his hand, and yanked it, causing DZ to lose his balance, and topple over and fall at Sky's feet. Sky grinned being victorious, but it was short lived as DZ pulled at Sky's feet, toppling him over, and stood up himself.

He turned to look at the great sight of three fallen rangers, but was immediately alarmed, as he didn't see the dead girl. She wasn't there, and then the next moment, she came flying out of nowhere right at him, somehow alive, and hit him with a saber.

Then as DZ struggled back to his feet, Z helped Sky and Draco up, and he looked at her as if she was a ghost.

"you're alive?" then turned to Sky, "you said she was dead?"  
"DZ was listening" Sky said, and gave a meek smile, and then turned away with Z to attack DZ as Draco pulled out his own morpher and yelled "SPD EMERGENCY!" and there was the Cyro ranger standing there in his white-crimson ranger suit with a 8 printed on the side.

"Let the games begin" he said, it was like his catchphrase, and then all the rangers launched their attacks together.

After a long struggle, the three managed to pin DZ on the ground, and then asked him, "where's Bridge?" wondering why he hadn't shown up to help DZ.

Draco had his foot on his tentacle, to prevent anyone else getting whipped like him. his ranger suit was also soaked in blood by now, and his wound needed dressing, while the others were still in a better state.

"he's gone" DZ spat out, full of anger.

"what?" Sky asked.

"he left to find that bitch Z Tate" he grunted as Z Delgado, angered, pressed a shoe over his mouth.

Sky looked at Z, panicked, "he's going out to get them!"

Draco tried to say something from the other side, but instead demorphed, and spat out a lot of blood on the floor, "he has a point, they'd be unsuspecting" Z said.

"you understood what he said?" Sky asked, as he went over and helped him up, while Z still held on to DZ, "no, but I could figure out what he was gonna say. It isn't rocket science. We need to warn the—" Z was cut short by DZ getting up, toppling her over.

"I may have lost, but I'm never going to prison" he said, and caught Sky by his neck, and lifted him in the air, as he struggled, Z attacked him, yet again, but was thrown to the floor by a blast from a gun in his other hand.

This was the end…

But.

The very next moment, a series of rapid gunshots knocked DZ down on the ground as the three saw a ranger in a sorta golden suit, leading the rest of Cyro's squad, minus Nova for an attack. Sam was also there.

The gold ranger shouted some orders, and then dragged the three wounded rangers away to a corner, and dressed their wounds.

"primary nurse" she grinned at their shocked faces.

"come on mom! This is the third time this month!" Draco protested, while Sky and Z gaped as Sydney demorphed and addressed their injuries.

"Syd?"

"I thought you went into the medical unit"

"that doesn't mean I can't get into battle once in a while."

"how did you know we were here?"

"Aurora saw you getting killed." Syd said, "Sky and Z were busy, so I had to come. The rest of the squad was also looking for some action."

By the time the three got to their feet, the squad had arrested DZn thanks to their superior technology, and swat gear, and he yelled some stuff from the confinement card.

"Bridge is going after Sky and Z, we don't know where, but we know we're out of time," Z explained hurriedly.

Sky tried reaching the commanders, but they didn't answer.

Syd had an explanation for that.

"they're having a family meeting and that means no communicators AND no phones. It's a silly rule, I know" Syd shook her head,

There was no stopping Bridge Carson, and there was no way to alert the commanders and their kids for what was coming. And what was coming was as grave as death.

* * *

A/N: See? I didn't take another six months. I've regained my interest in the story, n so I'm hoping i'll complete it soon. N did anyone get that 'Forked-up' Good Place reference in the last chapter?  
PS: How was it?


	15. Ch- Reconnecting

A/N: See? Posted earlier than 3 months! Hope it's not too confusing... I'm not too great at the heart to heart talks...  
PS. That silly rule about them not taking their communicators was something Richie had established with one of his tantrums. If someone has to alert them, come visit them.

* * *

**Ch- 15: Reconnecting**

Commander Sky Tate, commander Z Delgado Tate and their children, Richard Tate and Ruth Tate were all seated in the living room of their seldom-used house. The four of them lived at SPD, and so the medium sized house was usually on lock-down. Any of the four only used this house when they felt like getting away from the others. Which meant that Ruth used this house to get away from Richie in particular and to get some alone time with Sam without anyone noticing.

The whole family lived here together before Richie got into SPD. Which was about two years ago. Yeah, he was sixteen when he dropped out of school to get into SPD.

Right now, the whole family was in the living room, more than half of the house had its lights out; they didn't feel like switching it all on.

Sky, Z, Richie and Ruth were all sitting in separate chairs, none of which were very comfortable, but they were all facing each other. Sky had his hands knotted in front of him, Z was slumped back in her chair, Richie had his arms crossed in a defiant pose, and Ruth held her head in her hands, as if sick with the headache. Sky leaned back, then, and sighed, "why is this not going anywhere?"

"what?" Z asked, looking annoyed.

"we have been going at this for over an hour, tell me, why are we not doing anything?" Ruth added, supporting Sky.

"I think it's because you guys don't know the first thing about parenting?" Richie said sarcastically, and Z grinned, this was exactly what she would've said.

"Listen kids," Sky said, sitting up, "we've put forward all of our different perspective in this last hour, and we've pretty much established that all of us are adults now," then he looked at Richie, who was seventeen, "well, almost adults, I mean, you're grown up, just not legally, only, I mean, you get what I mean." He sighed again, "you two have grown up, and we can't just tell you what to do anymore."

"wait I thought this was all about you two misunderstanding us" Ruth said, confused.

"it is" Z added, "we misunderstood you, because we didn't know you had grown up so much. We thought you were still little kids who wouldn't know right from wrong." She paused, "But apparently you do."

"it's just that, today, when we saw the commotion, we automatically thought it was all caused by you." Sky said.

Ruth added, "I mean I know you're annoying, and sticky, and a little mean, and maybe a bit stuck up, and…" Richie clammed her up by placing a hand on her mouth, "thank you" he said sarcastically.

She struggled a little, and removed his hand from her mouth, and said, "What I meant to say was that you are still my brother and it was wrong of me to just assume that." then she added, a little unnecessarily, "even though you have a long convincing history of it."

"okay, enough of that, listen to us first," Z said, "you lashing out, made us realize that maybe both of us might have been a little… dictatorial to you two"

Sky nodded, "yeah, we have been a little too bossy, you know, we have like…" he was looking for words, but he just didn't know what to say.

"we know what you mean dad" Ruth said; she hadn't initially wanted to call Commander Tate 'dad', but she had learnt to do so, though it still sounded forced.

"but you should know that we only want what is best for you."

"come on! Mom, dad, how bad can it get?" Richie asked, tiredly.

"we used to know this guy, he was such a sweet guy, all he could talk about was buttery toast, he saw the best in people, and so, he was true to himself; we didn't know a guy with a clearer conscience."

"I sense a past tense," Ruth pointed out.

"he's probably the most wanted criminal on earth now, since he didn't decide to go galactic. He's a murderer, rapist, psychopath, mentally disturbed, and, honestly, he scares us" Sky explained, and then, in a very grave tone, Z added,

"you two know him as Bridge Carson"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

The two teens said in unison. (I know Ruth's twenty-something, I didn't forget)

"Bridge Carson used to be?" Ruth asked, their parents usually tried to avoid this subject.

"well, what I'm trying to say is that something we did, some wrong choices we made, some…" she tried to place the words, it was so hard imagining how things might've ended had they maybe tried to talk it out with Bridge at the right time. Maybe…

Yes, 'maybe' was all that was left with them.

"the thing is, we have seen someone turn evil from good, and we don't want that to happen to you two, because we don't think we might be able to forgive ourselves for ruining another life."

"how can that happen to us? We're not in any sort of 'love-triangle', we're family you know?" Ruth said, and Z knew she felt a wave of relief rush over herself, when she heard Ruth refer to all of them as a family. Ruth had been a little mistrusting in the beginning, but it seemed like she had really accepted them in the last few years.

"it wasn't because of the love triangle mishap. Though it was our fault, we know," Sky said, giving Z a meaningful look, "it was because he had so many of his feelings bottled up, that it led him to develop so much hate, that he… well, more than he could handle."

"suppressed feelings are the cause of anger, and anger leads to crime."

Richie nodded, "I get it now. I mean I was angry, I really was, and I've had bad thoughts more than once a while. It would've only been so long till I turned those thoughts into reality."

"bad thoughts?" Ruth grinned, curious at his choice of words.

"hello, parents sitting here. Can't swear" he whispered, and Ruth grinned, "got it," she whispered back, and they shared a fist-bump.

"alright, so we just want you two to know that whatever we do, whatever 'dictatorship', you think we have imposed, it's just our desperate attempt to kinda make sure that you two don't turn bad. Because well, we both love you more than ourselves." Sky said.

"you really mean that?" Ruth asked.

"yes sweetie, of course we mean that." Sky smiled, Z added form behind, "Ruthanne, Richard, both of you are our children, and we want to protect you, we work at SPD, and we all put our lives on the line everyday. We don't know whether we would make it through another day or not, and both of you know this too well, that one day or another—"

"one way or another," Sky chimed in, knowing where his wife was headed.

"we're going to leave you" she looked painfully pensive, "and we want you two to be able to make your decisions, wrong and right, on your own. We don't want you to end up as fugitives from the law. We want what is best for you. And sometimes, if we are too harsh on you, if you feel like you can't connect with us, we're sorry"

"aww mom! You'll make us cry!" Richie said, and got up, and hugged his mom, and then his dad. Then he looked at Ruth, "hey sis" he said, and he hugged her too. she hugged him back, and then, she looked at Sky and Z, wondering whether she should hug them too, but then decided she had a confession to make. Any sort of PDA would only follow after the confession, IF they understand.

"mom, dad, I have a confession, even to you, Richie," she said, her voice a little low.

"sure sweetheart, what is it?" Z asked, taking her hand, because Ruth was obviously uncomfortable in sharing.

"I've kinda sorta been kinda sorta dating Sam" she said, VERY nervously.

Sky's face flushed red, "you WHAT? Young lady this is completely unacceptable, I told you that you should stay away from BOYS until you are at least forty!"

Z looked at Sky and chuckled, "I started dating you at twenty three…"

"see? Mom gets it" Ruth said, amused, because she had thought it'd be her mom who'd flip out, and Sky who would be supportive.

"come on Sky, she's twenty seven. She's old enough to make her decisions." Z added, shrugging.

"but she's just a little girl!" Sky protested, his wife and daughter ganging up on him? So cliché.

"dad… you didn't even know me when I was a little girl" Ruth said, and it stung Sky more than he let on,

"that's all your mom's doing." He said, kidding of course, then turned serious again, "but I've just got you, I don't want you to grow up just like that!"

"dad, even I have a girlfriend"

"everyone here knows that's a lie Richie." Sky said, momentarily being distracted by Richie, and then turned back to Ruth, then something hit him, and he turned to Richie again, "you knew about this?" he asked, MAD.

"duh"

"why didn't you rat me out?" Ruth asked, a little confused.

"no matter how bossy, irritating, annoying, vexing," then he picked up a dictionary, looked up a word, paused a moment, and continued with the list, "aggravating, bothersome, galling, caustic, incommodious, rebar—"

"We get it idiot!" she said, clamming her hand up on his face,

"what I meant to say," he pushed her hand away, "no matter whatever weird creature you are, you're my sister, and I can't rat out your secret relationship to our parents, you know?" he smirked, and Ruth could swear that if her heart could melt, it would.

"sweetie, Sam's a nice boy, we've spent enough time with him to know that." Z said, "you don't need to keep it a secret anymore, okay? As for your dad, it'll take him a while to recover from the shock, then he'll be fine too, trust me." Z smirked, placing a hand on a crashed Sky.

"you're the best mom! Even you dad. I like that you worry so much. just don't overdo it sometimes" she smiled, and gave her parents a little hug.

Then she turned to Richie, "We need to have a word-off." He smirked, then she also smiled, "thanks for having my back bro. Hope I can repay the favor."

"it's not a favor" he said, shaking his head, and Sky and Z laughed.

"you guys wanna go out for ice-cream?" Sky suggested, and they were all excited, except for Z, who had a cough (not covid-19), so she said, she'd stay home.

And so she watched as her husband and oddly, really grown up kids exited the house towards an ice-cream parlor.

Z sighed, overall, the talk had been nice, the kids had opened up to her and Sky, and well, it was all they could ask for.

_'Now where is that mozzarella cheese? A sandwich wouldn't be so bad right now' _Z thought, as she switched on the kitchen lights, and she felt her heart skip a beat, skip many beats, as she saw an unwanted guest sitting in the kitchen, facing her, hands crossed, legs straight, his hollow, soulless eyes fixated upon her in the most menacing way possible.

He tilted his head, comically.

"Hello Z,"

He said, smiling, almost sweetly; the viciousness in his eyes overshadowing the honey-like sickeningly sweet words.

Bridge Carson

* * *

A/N: All stuff about Carson is in the following chapter, about how he got here, how he knew others would/wouldn't be here, and stuff. Any question about the deep talks? In the review box please!  
PS: how was it?


	16. Ch- Fear

A/N: I just don't get ONE thing! I start out all my stories, intending they won't go more than ten or twelve chapters. Thirteen tops without an epilogue. And I end up with ideas of having a story more than thirty chapters, and compress it into at least about 20-25 chapters. Is something wrong with me?

* * *

**Ch- 16: Fear**

"hello Z," he said, smiling,

There she was, right there in front of him: Z Delgado! His daydreams had turned real. After so long, she was right there, right in front of him. a little older, but still, just as beautiful if not more, and still, cold and disdainful as ever.

He decided to play a little game.

"I'm home honey! And I thought you'd be happier to see me." he said, like it were any normal conversation between a husband and his wife.

Z knew how to play along, "I just didn't think your… meeting would end before, you know, Thursday."

"you know those delegates… they had it postponed" he smiled again, continuing their 'pretend' conversation, "you look good" he complimented.

She smiled back, as _sweetly_ as she could bring herself to, dragged a chair back, and sat in front of him, at the table; she was wearing black pants, and a silver lined shirt, with an SPD logo printed on the front. It was one of those 'under the uniform' uniform shirts, like the ones they used for training, and it made her look so hot!

The more he thought about what was coming, the more he salivated; he'd pictured the whole scene playing out more than a million times all these years… At first, she'd try to be reasonable, trying to convince to let her go. He'd let that go on for a while, building her fear, until she'll really understand that she's powerless against him. And then he'd make her scream!

He felt a sharp edge of anticipation as lovely pictures and even lovelier sounds played in his head. His plan was to incapacitate Z, and if Sky wasn't around, then maybe have some fun with her waiting for Sky. Then he'd tie them up, and carry them to his safe haven… someplace where they wouldn't be interrupted for days…

Arriving here, he had taken adequate measures, following the commanders' car right from SPD to their house, and then entering through the backdoor in the kitchen that they usually kept unbolted, so it was easy to break, and then he decided to wait for them in the kitchen.

He had an idea that it might be a little difficult, just in case she decided to put up a fight, so, he had a duffel bag with him, in which he carried a crowbar, a hammer, some good, long nails, nylon rope, duct tape, two small rubber balls, a butane torch, a small metal box, some hydrofluoric acid, and a bunch of other, rather disturbing stuff. He had taken a minute off his schedule, to kill off the guy at the hardware store, so that nobody would be able to trace his movements.

Not bad planning for a psychopath no?

But the way she just casually sat there in front of him, crossing her feet, a not too wide, a little amused smile on her lips, was just… off.

Nobody SMILED when they saw Bridge Carson. Not anymore. Certainly not Z Delgado. He had expected she try to run, at least, but she just sat there. This was SO wrong! He had visualized this moment for so long, and now that it was happening, him and Z, alone at last, she wasn't doing anything she was supposed to do! What was with that?

Then she stood up, and leaned towards him—_towards_! Her face inches from his, "why Bridge?" she asked, in a mocking voice, "did you think I'd run? Beg? Or maybe scream?" then she grinned, right in his face, "are you disappointed? You like when people freak out, no? it's part of the fun, right?" she asked, and he felt scared. Him, BRIDGE CARSON felt scared.

Why?

Because, she, Z Delgado, was not.

_Z. Was. Not. Afraid._

Crazy!

Well, if she wasn't, he'd have to make her.

Maybe he should start a conversation, something that might instill fear in her mind… maybe a little bragging, no?

He looked into her eyes, which usually made anyone who looked into them scared. All of them saw estranged memories of all his tortures, rapes and murders, all of them reflected in his eyes. It was disturbing… disturbing for any normal human being. Why wasn't she getting unnerved? WHAT THE FRICKIN HELL WAS WRONG WITH HER?

"Bridge" she said, as calmly as she could.

"Bridge, I've been scared of you all my life, I've been blaming myself for what I've made you." She stared right into her eyes, "not anymore"

She sat back, "I've realized that whatever you have become, is on you. You could've taken the high road. Maybe moved on from me, like almost EVERYONE in the universe, who faces break-ups. It's not my fault, or Sky's that you couldn't handle the fact someone didn't want to date you anymore! It's not MY fault that you couldn't handle a single BREAK-UP!"

She was mad, he realized, and in that fire of anger, she had lost all her fear of him. Damn…

Fear. It was the strongest thing in the universe. If someone's afraid of you, it's very easy to subdue them. They make half of their mistakes in fear. This what precisely what happened the last time he had crashed at Sky and Z's place. They had two children, one fifteen, one twenty something, which was very strange considering their ages, as if Z had been a teenager when the child had been born. He could never clarify it with her. eh. Must've been some teenage pregnancy, who cares? But that time, on their 15th anniversary, he had snuck into the party, and nobody had noticed. When Sky did, he got afraid…. Afraid that he might lose his wife, his children. You only get afraid when you have something or someone to lose. You're afraid for them. And in that fear, Sky had tried to negotiate with him, to not hurt his children, and that made Bridge feel in supremacy, that was what gave him power over Sky Tate. He gave this trade off— Sky fights with him, one on one, and if he wins, Bridge would leave, and if he loses, well, then he loses.

In a fair fight, maybe Sky would've beaten Bridge, but here, in his own house, Bridge manipulated him with his clever words, understanding with his psychic powers how Sky was processing what he was saying, and managed to overpower him with his emotions of love, care and guilt. Sky had become WEAK! HA! Then he had thrown him off the roof of the house, not knowing whether he'd survive, but by that time, Z had called for backup, and he was forced to flee.

This time he had come with planning; he'd make quick work of Sky and Z, BEFORE they could call for backup.

He slowly rose from his chair, menacingly, wondering whether Z would feel her fear rushing back. But Z mirrored his actions; she also slowly got up from her chair, not breaking eye contact with him, the very same eye contact that could make people shiver. They could see his soul reflected in his eyes, and his soul was dead. She wasn't scared of death!

They didn't speak anymore. Bridge lunged at Z, hand extended, a blade in the hand, and she caught his hand, pulled it to her side, and brought him close to her; they froze like that for a few seconds, and then Z brought up her knee and kicked Carson in the robs which sent him back, spiraling.

"AH!" he groaned, as he felt something break inside, but nevertheless, he lunged at her again, this time, aiming at her feet, and before she could react, he kicked her ankles, making her fall. She used the kitchen table to steady herself, and gather momentum to launch herself at him, and hit him hard. He fell back, and crashed against the dishwasher. She decided to take the fight out of the kitchen, and ran into the living room, grabbing one of her golf clubs, and swinging it hard at Bridge, but its neck was cut in half by the extremely sharp blade in her hands.

"like it? It's Zoldan" he bragged, and she realized that it might've been her neck in place of the golf club.

She held the two broken pieces of the stick in her hands, in a cross formation, and used it as a block against Bridge's next attack with the Zoldan blade, and pushed him back.

She then climbed onto the couch, and using its springs as a trampoline, jumped high up, and kicked Bridge, right in the neck, and was sure he had broken at least one bone. He held his neck in his palm, massaging it, while used his free hand to take another swing at Z, which caught her in the back, leaving a long bloody scar all the way down, making her moan in pain.

"you know, you should get familiar with that sound. You're gonna be making it a lot in the coming few days!" he snarled viciously, and attacked again, still supporting his neck with the other hand.

"you STILL need to learn when to stop talking!" she said, sassily, and reached for her blaster, aiming at him, but missed as he leapt out of the way.

"oh, we're on to blasters now? okay!" he seemed oddly excited about it as he pulled out his bloody red blaster and fired at Z, whom he missed by inches and it hit one of the centre pieces of the living room.

"not the ones from Peru!" she groaned almost comically as she saw her 'precious' piece from Peru being shattered by the blast.

Then came another blast, which seemed very, very poorly aimed, and hit one of the Japanese wall hangings; Z cocked her head to her side, and said, "eh well, that had never been my favorite. But Sky's gonna be mad." He fired another shot, angry at hearing Sky's name, and missed yet again, and Z scoffed, "you're a little too out of practice no?"

"SHUT UP!" he screamed and finally, one of her blasts hit Z, right in the left shoulder, making her drop to her knees. But the fight was far from over, she swiftly lifted her right hand, and aimed a shot at Bridge and hit him, perfectly on spot, on his thigh, causing a stream of blood to gush out of the spot, and he also collapsed onto the floor on his knees. (Remember this is an unmorphed fight)

but then he started laughing, laughing like a maniac.

"Z, Z, Z," he said, shaking his head pitifully, "I forgot to tell you about a new… quirk I got!" he pulled out a small device from his pocked, and Z realized it was one of those healing tools that were still in the testing phase, and had been stolen from the lab of Dr. Rheas. Guess she had cracked that case.

He held it to himself, "any bleeding wound, closes up" he snapped his fingers, "just… like… that." he smirked, as she watched almost all his wounds, caused by her, closing up.

Hers meanwhile, the ones at the back, and the ones in the front, were bleeding a river. If she didn't do anything about it soon, she'd better bleed to death. Or worse…. He might just heal her enough to keep her alive, yet incapacitate her, and well… and well, then nobody could save her then.

The mere prospect of what he might do to her rattled her to her very soul, but still, she could feel her knees give way, as she collapsed form excess blood loss, at the feet of her ex-boyfriend, and arch nemesis, Bridge Carson, as he laughed.

* * *

A/N: So? Will she live? I can kill her off you know...


	17. Ch- Choices

A/N: ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! I had put in some really really shitty stuff in it, and i had forgotten that i hadn't removed it! i beg you people, I AM SORRY! so here it ism edited, and sans all that f$#kery!

* * *

**Ch- 17: Choices**

Her morpher!

It was in the bedroom! If only she could get to it, she'd morph and that could easily sustain her until Sky arrived with Ruth and Richie. In fact, with the morpher, she could urge them to come quickly! She could call for reinforcements!

But how the hell was she supposed to get to the morpher? She couldn't even stand up straight let alone make her way to the room?

Her duplicating powers!

Bridge was too busy healing himself to notice what she was doing. For him, she was done for, he probably hadn't thought of the civilian powers. She duplicated herself, in the bedroom, but immediately realized it had been a mistake. Z couldn't, simply couldn't reach the morpher, her energy had been divided among two, and it had left her completely incapacitated.

But anyway, she removed herself, using her powers, from the living room, concentrating herself in the bedroom, and felt relieved as she could stand with a little support from the bed. She reached for her morpher, and whispered, only barely, "SPD…emergency" and morphed into the IX ranger, aka the Delta Ranger, second only to the Deka Ranger, X, aka her husband, Sky Tate.

She felt a rush of morphin energy rush through her, and made her way to the living room again, her delta saber in her hand, ready for another hard fight.

"hey Bridgey" she smirked, a few feet behind him, her blade pointed at his neck, and he was frozen in his spot, knowing another move by him results in something that'd really hurt!

"So, you managed to morph huh?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation, and distract her, so that he could do something that wouldn't hurt so much.

"what are you trying to do Bridge?" Z asked, immediately knowing he was up to something.

"nothing, I was just wondering whether you'd like to hear about what I planned to do with you if you ever came into my grasp" he said, "of course I wo't be able to do any of it now that you have me at your mercy" he said, and Z knew it was ruse.

"I know what you were planning to do to me." Z said, gravely.

"oh no you didn't" he replied, playfully, "what did you think? That I'd rape you? Then kill you?" very innocently he asked, "Well, honestly, that doesn't even begin to describe what I've been fantasizing about for the past years"  
Z felt her dinner coming up, she knew that if she let herself fall, it'd be so painful for her that 'perpetual mental scars' would be an underestimation.

She knew if she ran the judgment scanner on him, he'd have a full minute to do whatever he wanted, while she'd have to hold the scanner, unable to defend herself. She had to stall him, more or less till Sky and the others arrived. She had already sent the SOS. But she didn't want to stall him with talks like this. She didn't want to be mentally disturbed for the rest of her life. He also seemed to be willing to talk, just a little bit more, maybe he was also waiting for something… maybe an opportunity.

She had to be careful, even if she had him at her mercy.

"so, Bridge, what do you think about the house? It was really hard to set it right after your last attack" she said, casually striking up a conversation.

"you know, it's really cool" he replied, willing to stall, "I love what you've done with the rugs, you know, not many people would put four mismatched rugs in an redwood living room floor!" he remarked.

"well, some of Sky's mom's friends had gone to Iran, and when they came back, they got us too many of these Persian rugs… we had to put them somewhere no?" Z asked matter-of-factly.

"what about the chandelier?"

"it's my choice" she shrugged, "I was really heartbroken when you shot through it at my daughter" Z said.

"the daughter part or the chandelier part?" he asked, just to make conversation, he was still looking for her to relax so that he could snatch the weapon out of her hands and turn the tables.

"how dare you ask me that?" Z scoffed.

"I still don't get which one," he said, matter-of-factly, and smirked, "you don't really seem to love your daughter. Or at least the kid you from the past doesn't" he said, and it hit Z somewhere she didn't want it to.

"how do you know about Sky and Z being here?" she asked, that was more important.

"Do you really think Count Time o'clock is an actual alien?" he asked, innocently enough.

"what the hell do you mean Bridge? he was alien enough. He even has an SPD record!" Z said, frustrated with his mind games.

"Count Time o'clock… you haven't seen him since the time he disappeared when Sky and Z first landed, right?" Bridge asked. He had a point; they hadn't heard form Count Time o'clock since the attack, (in chapter 2) not that they had bothered to look, as they had been busy with DZ Vaughn and Bridge himself, considering the number of surprising discoveries, but now, looking back, Z realized how casual of them it had been to just let go of a criminal.

"whatever" Z said, "he already has a criminal record" she said, there was no way what Bridge was saying could be true. Count Time o'clock had been around for like what? Fifty years!"

"oh my poor baby" Bridge said, mockingly, "you're sssoooo naïve"

Z felt her heartbeat skipping, "what the fricking hell are you trying to say?"

"Z, I was count Time o'clock. Not always, but one day, he came in my way, so I killed him. Then I went through his belongings, which even allowed me to masquerade as him; I now had a lot of time-resources available to me, I could literally change history. Make history. Break history. So, I decided, God was giving me another chance to redo my mistakes, and so, here I did it."

"what do you mean Bridge?" she asked, knowing fully well what he meant.

"Sky and Z are going to go back into the present, their present, our past, they're closer already. It'll be only a matter of time before they start dating… and as time progresses, as you felt like we were drifting apart, someday, those two will feel the same, and then, guess what? I'll swoop in. who knows, then maybe Sky will be the one with a bounty on his head." Bridge smirked, and Z had to admit, it was a pretty good plan. It was going to be well executed too, considering that since the memory removal tech had had quite a few accidents; they had to be extremely careful. Two days, three days, which was damaging enough for a person's memory, a whole week: that might leave some permanent scars. She didn't need any more permanent scars on her memory. It was Sky's call, whether save the world a murderer or the cost of his own sanity, go insane, and not alter the future a bit, or remain sane, but at the expense of all those people that he has tortured, raped and murdered.

It was a 70-30% chance. 70% they won't make through the memory release, 30% they do. It would be Sky's call, as he was the head, but he would consult her beforehand. She didn't know what to do. Erasing memories of Conner Ethan and Kira had been easy, for they hadn't been here for more than 24 hours, maybe even less, it wouldn't have had an impact, but Sky and Z, they had been there fr almost a week, and they would definitely get something bungled up in their heads if their memories of a whole damned week were to be erased.

Oh, Bridge Carson was horribly smart. Smart and evil.

"whatever, Sky will do what is best!" Z snarled.

"I just don't get what you saw in that jerk, you know," Bridge said, abruptly changing the topic.

"he isn't a jerk" Z defended her husband.

"he is, Z, don't delude yourself" Bridge replied, irate.

"I'm not! You are."

"oh really?"

"yes Bridge, you really are deluding yourself," a heavy, baritone voice said from behind, and Z's face lit up, though it wasn't visible behind her helmet; she felt so damn relieved!

Sky Tate was here.

X-X-X

When Sky Tate had received a message from his wife, urging him to come home quickly, he had anticipated it was because something was up. in no dream of his had he anticipated it to be something this dire. Sometimes Z just called him home because she was worried something might happen to him; just her own paranoia regarding Bridge, and this is what he had thought had happened this time.

He told Ruth and Richie —who were selecting the flavor of ice cream at the time, even though they were too old to argue on it— that they had to hurry some. The two of them said they'd had something to talk about, so they'd catch up a little later, so Sky set home alone, cuz his wife had asked him to.

He entered through the front door, using his spare key, and

Sky felt chills run up his spine, when he saw the scene in his living room... he needed to do something quick!

X-X-X

Meanwhile in the dark streets on New Tech City, two youngsters were walking together. The girl had a beer can in her hand, and the guy had a Sting bottle, cuz he wasn't legal drinking age. As soon as their father had left them, thy had dropped the idea of ice-cream, and gone to a general store to get their respective drinks, that kept them awake through most of the lectures at SPD.

"so?" Ruth asked her half-brother, after all, this had been his idea, "you didn't just get us away so you could get a Sting, right?"

"nope. If I need a sting, I can get it at the academy."

"well, you're too nice to ditch dad for a beer for me, so spill it. What do you want?" she asked, taking another sip.

"you know that if mom and dad find out, they're gonna kill us?"

"they can never kill us baby bro. and nope, they'll never find out" she added, smirking, joking about their parents never got old!

"Ruth, jokes aside, tell me one thing though, how did you find mom?" he asked, it was something he had always wondered, but never thought about asking; today, after the family meeting, he felt like this was the right time.

"what?" she was taken aback, this might've been the first time in years that she had actually hear Richie Tate say something so… human. (and that was excluding all the painful jabs)

"I asked you how you managed to find mom. I mean if I was in your place, I'd have been lost. How the hell did you find out where you came from?"

She wondered whether she should tell him, or not… he'd be judgmental, as he had always been, calling her illegitimate, and whatnot.

"I just did… it was easy" she replied.

"you're lying." He said, accusingly.

"I know I'm lying." She admitted.

"then why are you?"

"why should I tell you how I found Mrs. Tate?"

"Why TF not?" he asked, and damn he looked irritated.

"don't swear" Ruth said, snarkily.

"why aren't you telling me?"

"what have you done to earn my trust except for being judgmental about me? Be my friend first, then we'll talk" she replied.

"I'm your brother"

"half brother, remember?"

"still, we're related by blood, you shouldn't hide anything from me!"

"and YOU shouldn't call me illegitimate, a slut, or any of the hurtful things you say about me, just because I was born of a tragedy!" Ruth said, and she tried to hurry off.

Richie realized how insensitive he had been. He hadn't even realized what a jerk he had been. Why had he never been so incredibly nasty to her? He felt so guilty, and horrible, and felt like he needed to make it up to her.

"Ruth! Wait" he ran up behind her, "I'm sorry Ruth." He said, and yelled a hurried apology about how sad he was and how idiotic he had been, being so inconsiderate about his SISTER. He finally said that he didn't need to know what Ruth had said. It'd be her choice, if she ever decided to trust him enough to do so.

Ruth smiled, just a little, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "all in due time, brother, maybe someday that day will also come"

He also smiled, a little sadly, and the two walked around together circling back to the house. They were close enough for casual conversations, and had accepted each other, even stuck up for each other once in a while, but they weren't close enough for such heart to heart talks. That'd be something they'd have to work to build in the future. Someday, maybe they'd actually be truly open with each other.

But Richie's question had actually made her think back to her mother finding out about stuff.

She remembered her foster family. She had absolutely no memory of her mother, or father, and as far as she remembered, she was living with them.

They had told her, they had told Ruth about her real parentage when she had been thirteen. She was so shocked when she had found out, and she didn't know anything about her parents. She now knew she was adopted, she needed to know more. She went to the adoption agency to find out about who left her there. Turned out that her mother had been there, and had just left her there without a word, left her there the day she was born, so they had her birth-date right. She decided she didn't need to know anything about her mother, who was so cruel that she had left her baby the day she was born. What kind of a mother was that?

Then when she turned twenty-three, her adopted parents died in a car-crash. So she decided she should hunt her parents. The major lead was the fact that she had powers. She was looking for someone with powers. By that time, she had made it into SPD, the job of her dreams. And she realized that both of her commanders, as well as the trainers-slash-nurse, AND a boy in her squad had powers. It was so awesome. She felt as if her spectrum for the search had been narrowed. This was going to be easy. She paid another visit to the orphanage, and talked to the warden, and the receptionist. Finally, she found out what had been disturbing her for so long, but what she had been afraid to find out: why her mother had left her.

And Ruth couldn't help it, but feel sorry for her mother when she found out why her mother left her. she herself had been a teenage girl. She decided she should forgive her mother for this cruel act, because she had been in a very vulnerable situation herself. Seeing one picture of her mom, Ruth knew for one thing: Commander Tate was her mother. The likeness was undeniable. The same almond shaped chocolate eyes, and the same flowy hair, and the same soft jaw line. It was her. She was Ruthanne Delgado-Tate.

Then she confronted Z Tate, and Z was shocked. At first, she almost passed out, and took the support of her chair to steady herself. Then she smiled at her, tears in her eyes, and she hugged her daughter tightly. Z told her that she had always regretted giving her up. She had had her own problems. Z never could forgive herself for what she had done. Ruth couldn't remember how many times her mother had told her that she'd never let her go. Then she met the rest of her family. Her now-father, and commander of the earth branch, Sky Tate who was such a nice guy, that he was so supportive about all of it. He had been so damn surprised at first, he looked at her as if she were a medical specimen, then Z had expained the whole story, and she saw the temper rising in his eyes as he learnt that the woman he loved had endured so much pain. He sat through the nights with Z, consoling her, of her sorrows and wounds that had opened up. He truly loved her more than anything in the universe, which was what had made Z bold enough to face her past, and accept it. He had come to talk to Ruth some time after what had happened, and he had very softly told her that he loved her mother, and that he'd love her too, he just needed to get to know her. he told Ruth that he was there for her, and if EVER she needed anything, she could contact her father, without hesitation. He would always be there for both of his girls.

Ruth still hated her biological father though. And she knew of an encounter between her new father and her real father, which Sky had asked her to not tell Z about. After Z had told him about the rape, Sky had decided to track that wretched guy, and teach him a 'lesson'. He had pounded him, and today, he was resting in a confinement card.

She had a loving family, now, and had had for quite a long while, so she actually had never had any grudges against her mother, and after actually finding out about her mother, and everything else, all she could do was be grateful, even if her brother was kinda a jerk. But hey, all brothers are kind of jerks right? He had her back when she hadn't revealed her boyfriend to her parents. So maybe she should open up to him?

"hey Richie," she suddenly looked up, and he looked back at her and asked, "yeah?"

"I'll trust you. Let me tell you how I found my mother"

* * *

A/N: i know the story's moving real slow, but it literally has like three chapters left, so i'm dragging it... bye until next time!


	18. Ch- Redemption

A/N: Rated M for violence, cruelty and potential cold blooded murder.

* * *

**Ch- 18: Redemption**

"Bridge, I will say this one last time…" Sky Tate slowly drew out, for the third time, "put your gloves on, and we can sit… and talk"

the stalemate had changed since the time Sky had arrived, and it was less that three minutes later.

See what happened was that the minute Sky arrived, in his classic 'Sky-Tate-to-the-rescue' fashion, and Z had been distracted by his arrival, and his classic opening line, 'you are deluding yourself Bridge' and Boom!

Bridge had gotten just the perfect moment, to grip Z's wrist, and twist it around her, as his hands glowed with evil: a side effect of his psychic powers manifesting. His telekinetic abilities could throw either husband or wife across the room, in a dazed frenzy… no… that was the last thing either needed. Now he had both his hands outstretched in different directions, at Sky and Z. Ske needed to do damage control right now, it was for the sake of a very injured Z.

"right… and then you'd take me in" he said, and Sky had to admit, it was the classic thing to do.

Then Sky saw that glint in his eyes… the one he had had, the second before he had pushed Sky off the roof…

The glint of murder.

The next second, Z's blood ran cold, as she felt an iron grip on her throat, and felt herself bring hoisted into the air, from the neck. She reached for her neck, an involuntary scream trying to tear out, but emerging only as a short stifled squeak. There was no hand, at her neck, only the force of it, she touched her neck, and felt the grip tightening, as she felt her life force drain out of her body. Her face had turned ashen white as she struggled for every ounce of air, that was struggling it's way through Bridge Carson's telepathic grip.

Sky's eyes widened, as he watched his wife being lifted into the air, and being suspended there. His eyes watered, and his own breath came out in rasps, as he realized horrifyingly, that Bridge had Z under his mercy.

"Z!" he cried, and she just struggled in mid air, a mere ten feet apart, yet miles and miles away from his reach. Sky felt his knees give way, and he grabbed onto the couch, to steady himself, and watched as the psychopath looked cruelly from one to the other.

"so? Sky? Z? Tate? Delgado? Tate?" he said, looking alternately at both of them, "you want me to kill you?" he asked, smiling his _most charming _smile.

Z hurriedly nodded, as much as she could. Death would've been the best alternative for her at this present moment.

Sky meanwhile felt himself choking out, "NO!"

"hey!" Bridge pretended to be disappointed, "see, now you've made it difficult for me…." He grinned, sadistically, "Should I kill her? Should I not?" he tilted his head on one side, as if trying to speculate, then to the other side, considering the other alternative. "I should no?" and again, Z nodded, and Sky found himself crying.

"you know what? I'll let you guys decide." He said, smirking, "whoever BEGS more convincingly, will get his wish!" he said, and well, if he couldn't have _physical fun _with her, well, psychological fun was just as satiating.

"why are you doing this Bridge?" amongst his sobs, Sky whispered; this was the first times, that Sky Tate, Commander, Sky Tate, had cried in front of anyone except his wife. But he couldn't hold them back, right now. Seeing his wife struggling to die. They had been in life or death situations before, but they had been ultimate. This? This was torture, especially for him. He couldn't stand to see her like this, and he couldn't stand the thought of her dying. She couldn't give up like that! What if he—

Too many what ifs had been there,

"WHY am I doing this?" Bridge echoed his question, followed by a maniacal laughter, "ladies and gentlemen," he spoke out to no one in particular, "he asks, WHY I am doing this! He pretends to be SO ignorant!" followed by more laughter, "Sky Tate, what do you think? Why am I doing this? Why am I what I am today? Because of YOU!"

Sky was taken aback, so much viciousness in his old friend, so much of hatred… had he caused that?

"Sky, I was dating Z, I was in love with her! I was happy with her! we were both happy together! But then you came along… you swept her off her feet! And suddenly? I wasn't enough for her. oh, now she needed a prince charming, a knight in shining armor, who was rich, handsome, ripped, well built, moral… perfect."

Z was still struggling, in the air, not even listening to what he was saying, only hoping that he'd quickly finish up, and kill her off, because this purgatory was worse than hell!

"it was because of you, Mr. Perfect, that she left me, and plunged me, into this hell cycle of misery which made me the psychopathic maniac, as your newspapers describe me, I am."

Sky listened, and he realized his anger was growing with every passing word, not just because every passing second provided more agony to his beloved, but also because this, all of this, that Bridge Carson was saying, was sheer bullshit!

"what the fucking hell are you trying to say Carson?" Sky finally screamed, "you're trying to say that you're a soul dead, mad, psycho fanatic BECAUSE this woman broke up with you?" Sky asked, "you know? I used to blame myself, have been, for years now, for your misery! But now, in this situation? With you narrating exactly what I used to feel, is making me realize that it… is… not… my… fault! Ironic no?"

"ironic? No" Bridge repeated, with certain firmness in his voice, "hypocritical, yes" he said, amused, "you think of something, so it's right, and when someone else tells you the same thing, he's wrong?"

"Z also used to tell me, that it wasn't our fault, that it was not my fault, or hers, that you couldn't recover from a break-up!"

"break-up? that's what you think this was?"

"YES!" Sky was surprised by the sheer shock in his voice, "what the hell do you think it was you idiot? She found you bugging her, so she dumped you! It wasn't her first time! I'd had quite a few relationships before Z, and she had had before me! Including you! It wasn't our fault, or our scheme, that our relationship worked out, and yours didn't! Bridge Carson, this is how the world is! sometimes people find themselves suitable for others, sometimes they don't…"

he continued ranting, as he, from the corner of his eye, realized, that as Bridge's attention was diverted by Sky's talks, his grip on Z's neck was loosening. Who knew, if he continued like this, Bridge, in his total confusion, might release her.

"Bridge, this is how relationships work! People fall in love, they fall out of it, husbands cheat on wives, girlfriends find better boyfriends and break up… other way around too! people get bored of each other, people find better people to spend their lives with. They get divorced, they break up, they split up, they move out, SO MANY PEOPLE DO IT!"

"but that doesn't mean that if someone's left you for someone else, you set out to murder them and their lover! No! you move on, and find someone better for yourself! And why do you even HAVE to find someone for yourself? Why can't you just stay happy alone with your friends, and family? Bridge, remember I told you, when you broke up, that you shouldn't resent her? that she did what she thought was best for both of you? Remember when Adelaide proposed to you, and you turned her down because you were so hung up on Z? just think, if you had given her a chance, given anybody else a chance, wouldn't you have saved your own life?"

"ohkay, this is all nice and pretty, what's the catch?" Bridge scowled, and by now, he had completely forgotten about his grasp on Z, and was completely trapped in Sky's words.

"the catch, Bridge, is this: if, and only if, you had decided that you would've picked up your life, not gotten involved in those drug rings, and whatever other unspeakable crimes you did, IFF you had deicded that you'd move on, like everybody else did, after the break-up, and a few days of crying over it, maybe you would've helped us pick out the furniture in the house. Maybe your children would've been best friends with ours, maybe, you'd be laughing at dinner tables with us, Syd, Jack, Ally, Boom, and others. Maybe, just maybe, if you had dealt with the situation like an adult, you'd still have been our Ol' Buttery Boy Bridgey"

Sky was breathing heavily, after the whole rant, and he hadn't realized that there were tears in Bridge's eyes, though he was trying to fight them back. He was done... he had not just preached to Bridge, but also justified himself. He felt that he had redeemed his sins, had suffered enough for pushing his friend onto the dark path... He felt redemption. What Bridge was today, was not because of Sky, but because of himself, and that was just as soothing to Sky as the sight of relief sweep over Z as she felt air gush into her lungs at that very moment, and felt the life come back into her.

"you know what?" he said, standing up straight, "I'm tired, sick and tired of you two, the 'perfect couple'. I refuse to believe that whatever happened to me was not because of you two!" he said the words, but even his own voice didn't sound convinced. He knew what he had to do now, there was no other alternative for him. He couldn't surrender himself to the torture of the containment cards, and prison and judgement and trials! All he needed was a minute. It was game over for him, he decided to... exonerate... Z.

"you want us to take you in?" Z asked moaning from the pain, from behind, as Bridge, quite gently put her down, she had been so surprised by the gesture, that she wondered, if the psychopath had had a change of heart. Maybe it wasn't too late for him, she thought, but dismissed the thought as all the agony she had suffered in the past few minutes came back to her, this madman did not deserve sympathy. So many cruel murders, rapes and heinous crimes he had committed that confinement felt like a punishment too nice.

Sky raised his SPD morpher, to scan judgment for all the crimes he had committed, and it came out 'guilty' to nobody's surprise. Sky then raised his morpher to contain the vicious criminal.

But then the man acted as quickly as a puma… Bridge Carson grabbed a blaster from Z's waist, put it up to his head, and before Sky or Z could react, he pulled the trigger.

Schuyler Tate and Elizabeth Delgado watched horrified, as Bridge Carson collapsed onto the floor, as dead as he could be.

* * *

A/N: so? whaddaya think? worth it? loose ends being tied up in the next chapter, so ANYTHING anybody needs clarified in the next chapter post it in the reviews!


	19. Ch- Chances

A/N: rated M for a little bit of cruelty ad violence.

* * *

**Ch- 19: Chances**

"FREEZE! SPACE PATROL DELTA!" Sydney Drew's voice yelled, as she, leading the rest of the A-squad, and a little bit of B-squad, all morphed, who had all recovered, now, but minus the younger Sky, Z and Draco; (Ruth and Richie were still out, without any knowledge of the events in progress.)

They were met be a shocking sight. Their commander, Schuyler Tate slumped almost on the floor by the couch, a judgment scanner in hand, the other commander Elizabeth Tate, breathless, and trying to uphold herself, just as a person… Bridge Carson, slowly, almost dramatically slumped to the floor, his left temple oozed out gallons of blood, painting the house's carpets red.

"seems like you didn't need backup after all" Syd remarked, smirking at the sight, not knowing the whole extent of the mental and physical damages.

It seemed like Sky and Z had absolutely not noticed Syd's presence even though she had very loudly announced her arrival. Sky crawled all the way over to the extremely wounded Z, who was still morphed, and he placed a hand around her back, slumped slightly over her, and gently kissed her forehead, from over the helmet. She looked at him, and with the closeness between them, he could see her tear filled eyes through the helmet, and she pressed her head against his chest. He reached over to her hand, and pressed a button on her morpher, and her helmet came down, not the complete suit, just the helmet, and she looked into his eyes… they were there, and they had made it.

Sky let himself relax a bit, and leaned back, against nothing in particular, but the tension in his chest was released, and he closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against hers, and then Z also leaned into his chest, her own tensions releasing. He wrapped his arms around her, and then lied completely back on the floor, supporting her as a cushion.

Some rangers stumbled around awkwardly, to help Sky and Z, but Syd held a hand, signaling that she would go herself.

She bent over the dead body first, checking the pulse, and then certifying that yes, he was definitely dead, then she made her way over to Z and Sky. Sky was awake, his eyelids were open just a little, gazing lovingly at his wife; she on the other hand was completely passed out.

Syd went over and helped him out. They carried her over to the emergency medical van, which Syd had anticipated. The other cadets, very carefully carried the dead body of Bridge Carson out.

Only after Bridge and Z were out of there, did Syd pull Sky aside to talk.

"you guys managed it pretty well didn't you?" she asked, proudly.

"Z handled him. I was just a handicap for her. By the time I had arrived, she had had him at her mercy, but then she had gotten distracted, and well he then turned the tables. Maybe she would've handled him better if I hadn't come."

"how did he die?" Syd asked, almost knowing the answer.

"committed suicide."

X-X-X

Commander Sky Tate sat leaning back in the New Tech City hospital's special Space Patrol vault. The injuries sustained by the young Sky, Z, Draco and commander Z, were a little too severe, and Dr. Felix suggested it'd be better if they're shifted into the hospital. There they were being treated by that medic alien, who kept on saying that he 'owed' them, because they had actually listened to him, taken down time to track DZ Vaughn, and cleared his name. According to him, all four of them would be perfectly good to go in two days. Which frankly, he said, was overestimating the time, since he had treated Sky Tate's paralysis in less than an hour. He really knew what he was doing, and an ingratiated alien with crazy medic skills is all SPD could ask for. In fact, if the commanders allowed, he planned to take up a job in NewTech city only.

It was about six hours after the initial treatments, and their anesthesia had just worn off.

"so what he just felt bad and killed himself?" younger Sky asked, after commander Tate had narrated Bridge Carson's suicide.

"or maybe he heard the police sirens, realized that he would never be able to get out, and decided his time was up. Better death than the prison at Yitrius."

"Yitrius?" Z asked.

"the prison for the worst criminals" Draco explained, "it has only three inmates till date, all worse than the last. It's a kind of solitary confinement, where robots give all orders for the labor reformative therapy. Solitude combined with painfully hard labor is supposed to be reform, but in my opinion these people are beyond reform. I remember the last one they had sent there had been arrested for the mass murder of a whole tribe in Central America, with a chainsaw." Sky and Z winced hearing that.

"anyway," Z said, "why did he leave me? He could've just killed me with himself, why let me go and die himself?"

"don't tell me your words touched him sooo much" younger Z said in a mocking voice.

"I hardly believe that" Sky himself admitted, "he was incorrigible. But maybe something happened. I am not sure."

"what changed in him was something quite strange, but I think something did happen. Something happened in him, maybe our words, maybe some greater realization?"

"or maybe he'd had enough of it?" Sky suggested, and the commanders, Z and Draco, all looked at him, and pondered his peculiar statement.

"maybe he was sick of running around?"

"I think he had intended this to be the endgame" older Z nodded,

"yeah, either you live or he does" Draco nodded,

"maybe he realized that your love was stronger than his hate, and decided it'd be better to die rather than staying alive and watching you two together"

"or maybe he wanted his love to be happy, even if it wasn't with him?" Z suggested, and commander Z looked at her, wondering IF that might be the case.

Finally Sky sighed, "in the end, whatever he had in his mind, we'd never know"

"bottom line is that we're together, and will be," and everyone agreed.

Commander Delgado sat up, and Commander Tate kissed her softly, which, for once, the younger Sky and Z didn't wince. Rather she gave him a flying kiss from across the ward, and the older duo looked at each in wonder. As Sky smiled happily, while Z's expression darkened a little.

"what's this little situation?" he asked with an amused grin, knowing exactly what the situation was.

"we're…. kinda… sorta….. dating?" Sky looked uncertainly at Z, "you haven't actually confirmed what we… ARE yet"

"yes, Sky, we ARE dating" she replied with a smile, then immidiately made her wince as her jaw hurt from the injury.

"THAT'S AMAZING!" commander's eyes were completely lit up!

"Sky I think we need to talk" older Z gestured to older Sky and the two looked awkwardly at each other, and then at the other three in the infirmary.

"you can't get ANY privacy here" Draco said grinning, and lifting up his plastered leg, and wincing, still trying to sustain his chuckle.

"alright" Z sighed, "but you wouldn't like it" she said.

"Sky, count time o'clock was Bridge." she revealed, and the others looked at her in surprise, "which is why he immediately went off the grid the moment you guys were stuck here"

"yeah. It's not like we didn't search for him… but we couldn't find any sort of Clocksworth Bio signs, which meant nobody from that planet, specifically Count Time o'clock, wasn't anywhere in our vicinity." Drake added, and the others nodded.

"that was Bridge's backup plan," Z said, "he explained it to me, because he thought I might never live to reveal it to anyone else" to that they heard the other commander mutter a string of curses that were… disturbing… to everyone in the room.

"anyway" Z said, guiding everyone away, "he felt that if you two get t spend so much time together, you might end up dating each other… BUT then if the events take a toll, you might split up, and I might end up with Bridge. But that would mean that Sky here might end up being the psychopathic-rapist-slash-murderer. It also chances the risk of removing two persons' existence."

"two persons?" Draco asked.

"Richard and Friedrich." Sky supported.

"yes" Z nodded, "we don't know what might happen if you go back into the past with memories of your time in the future. You might try to change it, or you might not try to change it, yet something will change. It is inevitable, because as we see, you two already are together. Everything is a little too uncertain"

"why can't you remove our memories?" younger Z asked, "Dr. Manx removed the Dino Thunder ranger's memories when they had landed up in the future with us?"

"yeah, but those were the memories of just a day and a half. You two have been here almost two weeks!" Z was almost in a panicky state, "if we erase your memories and send you back, there is no telling what we might delete. You two might just end up in a mental asylum, because you won't even know who you are!"

"what if we don't delete the memories, but pretend like we did. Like we just try not to think about whatever happened between us?" Sky suggested.

"then we'd try to avoid each other, and that itself can create a change in the timeline" younger Z was beginning to understand.

"how bad can it be? You know the change in the timeline?" young Sky asked, and commander Tate completely agreed, "what do we have to fear Z?" he addressed both of them, "if we found each other once, why not again?" he took his wife's hand in his own, "Z if we were meant to be, there is nothing in the universe that can change it"

She looked at him, painfully, "but Sky what if we weren't? what if all of this was just a matter of chance? One in a million?"

"Z—" Sky was interrupted by Draco, "do you people even know what's on the stake?"

The other four turned to look at him, "I can't believe how selfish you are being!" he seemed a little angry, "it isn't just about the two of you! Or four" he added as an afternote, "but about so many other people who's lives are influenced by you! Look at it this way, suppose it's an atom, you four are the nucleus, everyone who's lives are affected by you are the electrons in your orbit. Your behavior affects them, and theirs affects yours!"

"what's your point?"

"my POINT, is that, there are people who have lost their lives to Bridge Carson. including Carson himself. It is they who will benefit or detriment from your choice. If Carson goes good, and you take his place instead, you might end up killing more people or less. Or you might not kill any people at all since Sky here knows what happens in the future." He realized by the faces of others that they were completely lost in his explanation, "guys it isn't about you. He killed other people who might be saved if these two go back and change the timeline" he explained simply.

"he has a point" older Z said, a little ashamed, "we were just thinking about ourselves"

All the others nodded in agreement, neither sure about what to say or what to do. Draco had a point, "Z, your call" Sky said.

All eyes turned to commander Tate.

She was still a little uncertain, but she said, "alright…" she sighed, she was the commander of SPD, and she had to put the benefit of the people above her own wishes. And the best for the people would be if there never WERE a psychopath named Bridge Carson. "Let us leave it to chance."

X-X-X

Richie and Ruth were only allowed to see their mother after twelve hours, i.e. six more hours after Sky had, which had been set acc. their doctor's prescription. When they had met their injured mother, who was finally out of danger, they grasped her in a heart wrenchingly emotional hug. They didn't let her go for quite a while, and then finally when they did, they all talked, all the events were narrated, both at the Villa, with DZ Vaughn, and the one at the Tate mansion with Bridge Carson.

X-X-X

Meanwhile, the A-Squad undertook a raid of the Carson-Villa, uncovering a bunch of dead bodies, which were just rotting in the basement. There were humans, aliens, cyborgs, all brutally massacred alike. The basement was ringed with blood, and all those people's possessions were still lying untouched.

Going through it, surely enough, Sam found the dead body of Count Time o'clock, stripped naked, and without anything that had been his own originally.

The sight of the basement led many of the squad members to throw up their lunch.

So anyway, he found the clothes, which had been sported by the murderer when he had come back to the past, and the devices he had used to travel through time. there were also a whole bunch of fake IDs and passports, and visas, which maybe he used to get around. He had a LOT of 'mementoes' such as brooches, pens, trinkets, there was even a teddy bear. It was impossible to identify to whom these belonged, but it was painful to think that all that was left of a person on this planet maybe was a brooch, or a teddy bear.

What a monster he had been! It horrified the whole A-squad, as they tore apart his cave of brutality.

But on the brighter side, they now had accounts of a bunch of murders, dead body, as well as criminal, AND they could send their guests from the past back home.

X-X-X

It was another twelve hours later, and Sky, Z and Draco were finally discharged. Sky and Z returned to their room, back at the academy, Sam and Ruth are there to escort them, and make sure they stay out of trouble.

They don't land up in any sort of trouble.

It was about ten at night, when they were finally at the room, which had become their home.

"it's up to us isn't it?" Sky slowly asked Z, once they were all alone in that room.

"I guess it is" she smiled, softly.

"what will we do?"

"we'll let time tell us what to do…"

And then they kissed.

X-X-X

"I'm here to take you home" her husband slowly whispered, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, "do you want to come home?"

"where is home Sky?" she asked, her eyes clouding with tears.

"where we are together" he whispered, resting his head in the nook of her neck.

"what if it all changes? What if we're not together anymore?"

"then your home will be with whoever would keep you happy then" he replied.

"only you can keep me happy Sky!"

"then I'll be there. You can trust fate that much"

"I love you Sky"

"I love you too Z"

He looked up, at the stars, visible through the transparent glass ceiling of the room, and she looked up with him. The stars would stay the same, everything else might change. And no matter how things changed in the past, present or future, they had a feeling they'd still be there, stargazing… together.

A/N: The Dino Thunder/SPD team-up (History, not Wormhole) has already happened in this storyline.

A/N(2):Next is the last chapter of the fic! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!


	20. Ch- Destinies

A/N: So here we are... I can't say how happy I am, to finish my first Fanfiction EVER!  
Btw, to get the gist I'd recommend the songs ''Born to Be Yours (Kygo and Imagine Dragons)'' and ''Meant To Be (from Teen Beach-2)'' playing in the background, because i had them in mine when i was writing it, especially the last scene!

* * *

**Ch- 20: Destinies**

Another day passed, and finally the Doctor gave permission for inter-time travel.

Cyro and Epsilon Rangers got to the task of setting up the inter-dimensional-time-portals, right away, early morning, about six, to create the portals that would send Sky and Z back to 2025.

"NOVA!" Cyro called out, "how the hell did you figure out WHAT time to go back to when you went to rescue Sam?"

"yeah it took a while," she said, strolling over casually, to the devices that were being set up.

"See when Omega had tried it, he had transported several days BEFORE he was required, then I went a few days later, with a completely perfect timing, right down to minutes and seconds. But that idiot machine fries EVERY damn time it was used so finally it was tossed into the trash."

"I know that why are you telling me that?" Cyro asked, a little frustrated.

"I don't know WHY, but I know how to set it up, and so does Omega. All time-travelling devices (unless it's a wormhole) work in a similar fashion. Chill."

Then nova strolled over to the device, punched a few buttons, pulled a few levers, spun a few dials, and a portal took shape; she then poked her head through to the other side, and then nodded, "the time is set, New Tech City, 2025 around a week after their abduction."

"you knew all that by just poking your head through?" Epsilon asked, baffled.

"Yeah, I had set the location right in front of a train station schedule. So, yeah, it wasn't much. I saw it quite well." She grinned.

"cool! So let's get this party started!"

"farewell party?" Epsilon tried making a joke, but it was a moo point, and SO, he, embarrassed, said, "I'll show myself out" red as a tomato.

X-X-X

"wake up sleepy-head" Z said, kissing Sky's neck, trying to wake him up, but when he mumbled something sleepily, she nipped his shoulder, and made his squeak, and his eyes flew open, he looked at her, on top of him, and grinned, realizing this was her 'special' way of waking him, and so he decided she also deserved her own special treat.

He smirked, and tossed her up, turning them around, so that he covered her body with his much larger one, and started kissing her heatedly. They were already quite naked from their exploits of the previous night, and he was just making love to her, when there was a loud and definite knock on their door.

The two, startled, cut short their session, and quickly wrapped some cloth around themselves, to answer the door…. Or to be more specific, Sky went and poked his head out of the dor, wrapping a towel around his waist, while Z pulled the bed covers close to her chest.

"commander" he said, looking at his own older self, and Commander Tate looked at the 23 year old suspiciously, "you're departure time has been set by the rangers in an hour. Get Ready" There was certain authoritarianism in his voice, which made Sky salute himself, and then duck back in, and tell Z that they didn't have time to complete whatever they had been doing, and so she agreed, and they quickly dressed up.

Sky and Z met up with the two commanders, and the A-Squad in the command centre. Richie was the only one from the B-Squad, allowed to join, and say goodbye to the two.

Z hugged Ruth tightly, Sky fist bumped Richie (Baymax Style), they said goodbyes to the commanders, and then Draco morphed into Cyro, and as per his duties, got ready to escort the two back to the past. But Sky stopped him, he said that he and commander Delgado-Tate would escort the two.

Commander Tate morphed into a red ranger crossed with black form, with a massive X print, the DekaRanger. While Elizabeth Delgado morphed into the Silver crossed black Enneranger, with a massive IX printed on her chest.

So then Nova rigged the portal, and it opened, into 2025.

The four people walked through the portal, and felt a shimmery mercury-like substance engulf them. Last time they had been through, they had been dragged, and didn't remember any part of it whatsoever.

Off to the other side, minutes later, the four found themselves standing in the extremely familiar command centre of New Tech City, 2025. Watching the portal open, commander Cruger, and Dr. Manx had gathered in front of it, the other three rangers were nowhere in sight.

As the four figures stepped through, at first they took a defensive stance, but when they saw the familiar faces of Sky and Z, along with two power rangers, they relaxed.

"cadets Tate and Delgado, we are glad to have you back" Cruger… welcomed? In his voice you'd never know. It might be sarcasm too.

Dr. Manx was way nicer, "the other rangers had been worried sick. We're all glad that you are okay"

Commander Tate, the Dekaranger saluted commander Cruger, and spoke, in a heavier voice than usual, "commander" His tone was one of respect.

Cruger must've noticed Tate's badge, because he also saluted, as a sign of respect, and replied, "commander", acknowledgement.

"The two of them were transported to New Tech City, to 2045. Twenty years in the future. We refrained from erasing their memories for the greater good. It is possible that every action they take from this moment on, might alter the future time-line once and for all. We have chosen to let that happen."

Then commander Delgado, the Enneranger picked up the conversation, Cruger saw her, and addressed her "commander" as well, though he did seem a little confused by what he saw. Two commanders?

"The knowledge they have is highly classified, and we implore you to not let them reveal it. The consequences of their actions are inevitable, but that is chosen. But if they reveal this knowledge to other people, their friends for example, it might cause even greater changes in the timeline, which might, or might not be required."

Sky and Z nodded, they had received the same lecture the previous night also. They were not going to reveal anything to anyone. The commanders didn't need to put babysitters onto them.

But anyway, their requests made, the commanders of the future bid goodbye to their own younger versions, quite discreetly, and then passed over to the other side.

Sky and Z looked at each other, and wondered what to do next. Cruger asked them for a briefing, and they said, quite cheekily, it was 'classified information' and so they couldn't revela what their mission was, but assured that the monster who had taken them to the future 'wouldn't cause any more trouble'.

Cruger applauded, telling them it had been a test, and they had passed. Then Kat run a few tests on them, making sure it was really them, and then they were let go, to meet their friends.

On the way, though the hallways, Sky and Z talked, "Sky?" she asked, "should we tell them?"

"I don't really know." He shrugged.

"I think we should keep it a secret for a while at least. I mean this would be too soon." She said.

"true, true, true" he nodded, "so should we do what? continue our fight?"

"what fight?"

"the one we were having, but were very rudely interrupted by Count time o'clock?"

"right…" she nodded, now remembering.

"should we… fight?"

"let's not."

"yeah I didn't want to either." He replied, chuckling nervously. It felt as if everything was up to them now. But then again, they'd never be able to explore the repercussions of what they did before 20 years, and for them, that time would be their present, so they'd never fully understand what changed what.

"let's just leave all this burdens and forget we ever went there." she said, "let's do whatever time makes us do, and for now, I think we should just chill with our friends"

"for the first time, I couldn't agree more!" he agreed, and at that very moment, Bridge, Syd, Jack and omega in a light-ball came jumping towards them, yelling (no prizes for guessing who spoke the lines) "KAT TOLD US YOU WERE HERE!"  
And, "WE'RE SO GLAD U GUYS ARE BACK!"  
And, "WE WERE JUST WORRIED SICK!"  
And, "WE LOVE YOU GUYS DON'T EVER LEAVE US ALONE AGAIN!"  
AND then they gripped both of them in a GIANT TEAM HUG! Sky and Z wouldn't get a chance to get away from them anytime soon!

X-X-X

"through the portal, on the other side, somehow, because of some miscalculations in the location region by Cyro, (who's math was almost as good as Bridge's counting— 4,5,7,8 kinda) The two commanders found themselves in the vorest surrounding New Tech City. It wasn't dense, and they had been there multiple times before, and knew almost every nook and cranny. They unmorphed, but as they left the portal, they saw that in their hands, they held a long silver, mercury like rope, which was shimmering, and wasn't actually solic. It was like a string of memories from the pensieve.

"what's that Sky?" Z asked.

"we've entered a new world Z," he replied, he had known this would happen, "but we still have our old memories, this string, that connects us to our old world. We can't actually enter our new world until we let go of these memories."

"so we'll lose all our beautiful memories if I let go of this string?

"I don't really know." He shrugged, not really knowing.

"so what do we do?" she was confused.

"How about we leave it together?" he suggested, softly.

"I can't do it Sky. I can't watch you leave!" she seemed to have almost made up her mind that Sky wouldn't be there.

"we have to Z, we can't just stay here all our lives," he said, because she was being completely irrational, then he got an idea, "you know what? close your eyes, and leave the string."

"If I close my eyes, and leave it, would I open it to find someone else in your place?" she asked, tears clouding her eyes.

"I was born to be yours. Don't worry. WE're destiny." he barely whispered, and pressed his lips against hers, transfixing her is a passionate kiss. Z closed her eyes, and let herself get completely lost in his kiss, she love the feel of his lips on hers. it wasn't a tongue kiss, just a sweet one, that was supposed to make her feel safe, and it really did. He himself let go of the string of memories, and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her up, even closer to her, if that was possible. Finally, building faith in him, and their destinies, she also let go of the silverine string, and wrapped her arms behind his neck, brushing the nape of his neck.

The two stood there, bound in an embrace of love for a few minutes… or it could've been seconds, or even hours, because time seemed meaningless to the two. But finally they had to part, for a bitch called oxygen; panting, he rested his forehead against hers, and looked into her eyes, as she slowly opened them to take in her husband.

Schuyler Marcus Tate was standing in front of her, his clear, deep, green-blue eyes staring lovingly into hers. He was just the same, her eyes clouded with tears as she realized how much she loved him…  
but something was different. To start off, there was no knife-mark on his temple, which felt really really good to see, because it meant something had changed.  
But the other thing, she asked, "Sky," her voice still cracked a little from the tears, "what happened to your hair?" she gave a short chuckle.

He broke away from her to run a hand in his hair, and gave a wide grin, as he found himself saying, "I knew I shouldn't have let that idiot Bridge cut them! Just because his wife is coiffeuse doesn't make him one too!"

"I know right!" she said, grinning, even though her mind told her to not believe everything he had just said! Bridge was dead! He was this criminal who had shot himself not even two days ago! There was supposed to be a funeral in a couple more days! What was happening? But at the same time, somehow she found her own memories countering the statement, as Bridge hadn't shot himself, he had arrived with Sydney as a backup force, right when Count Time o'clock had shot himself! She tried to remember the time they had found out that Bridge was on drugs, and involved in criminal stuff, right after Syd's divorce, but the only picture coming to mind was Bridge toppling over with a whole mountain of toast, when he heard that his best friend Sydney Drew was getting divorced. No memory of evil Bridge came to mind even when she thought of what he had done. It was as if she KNEW what had happened, yet couldn't seem to picturize the moments in her mind, instead, they had been replaced in her memories by innocent, often funny memories of Bridge ad his goofiness. It was like writing a fanfiction. Being able to think of a story, like it actually existed, yet somehow not being able to place it back in the canon universe of the show. It was strange, but nice, like everything that they had gone through was actually just reading a horrible fanfiction, and not living it in real life!

Even for Sky, everything seemed confusing. He felt the same way, things seemed to not make sense, yet somehow make perfect sense. Had he just said that he had let Bridge give him a haircut? He remembered it distinctly, but he also knew he had arranged a press conference, actually multiple ones, for arranging bounty sums to people to get Bridge Carson, and the last one, in which he had said that he would do it himself. He tried remembering the time Bridge had thrown him off a roof, on his own anniversary night, but all the images that came to his mind were those of Bridge carrying a 15 layer anniversary cake, celebrating Sky and Z's fifteen year anniversary! What the hell was happening? He had been paralyzed for four years! That had'nt changed, but the cause of it had. He had toppled from a balcony as a result of an… earthquake? His memories told him of times Z had crashed at his and Bridge's bedroom to be with HIM and not with Bridge as he knew had actually happened in the beginning, which was what had led him to develop feelings for her. Remembering how he had actually started going out with her, he had a brand new album of memories of his visit to the dystopian...'future?'...where he had confessed he had liked her, and it had led to so much!

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

Sky and Z both looked at each other, and in their eyes they saw the confusion, which slowly cleared, as they realized that they had new memories, images, in their mind, BUT they still _knew_ the turn of events. They were perhaps the only people in their universe now, who remembered what their world had looked like before. On the brighter side, now they could compare and contrast what had changed, and what hadn't. Oh God! To think that they'd never be haunted by the memories of guilt and murders! To know that their best friends were still their best friends! To know that nothing in their own life had changed, even though a life very closely connected to their had been saved! It was utopia! No other situation could've been more perfect.

Z realized just how paranoid and wrong she had been all this while. She had though that it was anomalous that she had chosen Sky over Bridge, but yet here, in this alternate parallel, utopian universe, she was still with Sky! That wasn't the anomaly. SHE AND SKY HAD ALWAYS BEEN DESTINED TOGETHER. And to think Sky had known it all along.

"Goddamnit, they did it!" Z said, hugging Sky tightly, "WE did it Z," Sky corrected, and hugged her back, and in the process, lifted her off the ground, and then spun her around in the air.

When they came down again, they kissed, "Here we are Z, look at us; at the end of the day, We. Were. Destined. To. Be. Nothing in the universe could change that. Not even crazy time-traveling psychos and kid us."

"yeah, you're right, sorry I had doubts... I mea everything's just so... perfect... Bridge isn't evil, and we're together." she said, "I love you, and I will, in every life... forever."

And then finally, Sky called SPD Base on his intercom, and a very, very familiar voice came through, "yes commander?"

"Bridge" Commander Sky Tate found himself speaking, "we're coming home."

**THE** **END**

* * *

A/N: There we go! Love or Hate? Was it worth the whole suspense? I had to rewrite the like five times, with different storylines... things changing not changing, and finally I settled on this!  
And here's a little afterthought, a description of what the world would look like in the future since there's no epilogue and I didn't want to ruin Sky and Z's little moment. So here it is:

**AU: Bridge Carson is and will always be Sky Tate's best friend, and now, the head technician at SPD since Dr. Manx moved to the galactic command. He was SUPER supportive of them dating when they finally revealed their little secret, actually kinda like a crazed fan, (Eg: Boyle for Peraltiago in B-99) Later down the line, he also got married to a woman, who was at first at SPD only, but later became a professional hair-dresser, or as Sky puts it a little more classily, a ''coiffeuse''. Bridge also tries his hand at his wife's equipment, though it doesn't seem to make much difference for him, as he still ends up screwing up sky's hair such that they're sticking out in all directions, but everybody dismisses it as ''oh that's just plain old Bridgey''. Bridge's son, Freddy, is STILL unable to join the ranger squad(s) because commander Tate doesn't think he's still good enough, and needs more training. Freddy still literally worships both of his parents. As for Richie and Ruth, their stories are exactly the same, even the Sam part. Half the people that died because of Evil Bridge never died, and actually live happy lives. Aurora is still a little... estranged, but now she has a mentor in Bridge who, also being a psychic, helps her maintain her powers. Sky and Z were brought into the future by the **_actual C_**ount Time o'clock. And DZ Vaughn/Crestos is still evil, and serving time in prison, though he never worked with Bridge. Draco is still the wise-ass boy wonder he was, and Syd still dearly loves him, and often rescues him from trouble. Only now, she has Bridge to assist her in her rescue operations.**

So yeah, I believe that's a happy ending... do you agree?


End file.
